Download Student Information 2012-2013 - Drexel University ...

Intersession II – Transition to Residency
Intersession II is a two-week required course that
assists the learner’s transition between medical
school and internship. The first week is completed
online and requires the student to work through
modules that address palliative/end-of-life care,
complementary and alternative medicine, advanced
communication skills such as delivering bad news,
and the final section of the business of medicine
course. Week two, which is done on site, is focused
toward both didactic and skills learning. Students
build upon what they have learned during week
one and practice these skills in workshops. They
meet with a standardized patient and practice
their communication skills, both in the delivery
of bad news and in obtaining a DnR status from
a family member. Other interactive workshops
include Megacode, Intubation and Oxygen
Delivery, Advanced Suturing, Pediatric and OBgYn
simulations and more. These are self selected by the
students based upon the residency they matched
into. Other areas of didactic learning include routine
assignments that may be expected of an intern such
as pronouncing a patient dead. This lesson explains
this duty from the actual way a person is pronounced
through the paperwork, autopsy information, and
concludes with the personal reaction that death may
evoke in each of the learners. Students participate in
a mock trial to address medical malpractice issues
and concerns.
Early Clinical Exposure
At Drexel University College of Medicine, we think
that early and sustained clinical experience gives
students the confidence and comfort level to excel
in their duties during the third and fourth years
and beyond. College of Medicine students gain
experience by working with standardized patients in
our Barbara E. Chick, M.D. ‘59, Clinical Education
and Assessment Center (CEAC) and also in our
new Independence Blue Cross Medical Simulation
Center. These opportunities begin in the first few
weeks of medical school and continue through the
fourth year.
Early clinical exposure enables College of
Medicine students to:
• learn the time-honored skills of history taking
and physical examination
• gain real-world communication skills
OPPORTUnITIES TO gAIn
CLInICAL SKILLS
Students in both Interdisciplinary Foundations
of Medicine (IFM) and Program for Integrated
Learning (PIL) attend “Patient as a Person” lectures.
These lectures are important in helping students
better understand patients in their biopsychosocial
contexts. The lectures also allow students to realize
how their own attitudes, values, and personal
histories can affect how they listen to and understand
patients.
Small group sessions in both curricula allow students
to learn a variety of interviewing techniques using
role-play, standardized patients, and real patients
in the hospital wards. Students also make visits to
geriatric living facilities, an emergency room, and to
an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting.
In the Interdisciplinary Foundations of Medicine
(IFM) curriculum, students attend “Clinical
Framework” lectures which are designed to highlight
clinical reasoning and the importance of basic
science knowledge in differential diagnosis, and
how to apply knowledge to understand disease
processes.
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