INTRODUCTIONWith 125 schools of medicine, each unlike any other, theAmerican system for medical education is among theworld’s largest and best. Faced with such a wide range ofdiverse options, the aspiring medical student andphysician could well ask: What are the defining differencesof Georgetown University School of Medicine? If Ichoose to attend will I be able to achieve my personal andprofessional goals here?Georgetown’s location in the nation’s capital— aninternational crossroads, home of the renowned NationalInstitutes of Health, and one of the world’s mostculturally exciting cities— certainly makes it unique.More distinguishing, however, is its philosophy. TheSchool of Medicine is heir to the long and rich Catholicand Jesuit tradition of caring for the sick. From itsinception it has been committed to the pursuit ofknowledge in service of the community. TheGeorgetown medical experience is centered in “curapersonalis”— care for the whole person: a commitmentto the psychological, spiritual and social as wellas physical well being of the person. This philosophyfinds expression in research and in scholarship, as well asin the dialogue of science and service, faith and technology.It also animates basic science and clinical education.Today Georgetown’s tradition of excellence in clinicaleducation is perpetuated, not only through the diversityof the patient populations that Georgetown medicalstudents encounter but also through their early exposureto clinical care. Georgetown’s curriculum includesdepartmentalized instruction in the basic sciences, earlyintroduction to clinical (particularly ambulatory) care, awide range of electives, and time for independent study.Different teaching styles enrich the curriculum’s objectives.Such teaching methods as problem-based learning,small group instruction, and one-on-one’s challengestudents to learn core biomedical science knowledge in thecontext of clinical problems drawn from the bedside andthe clinic. In addition, Georgetown has developed andimplemented a comprehensive, innovative program thatincorporates complementary and alternative medicine intothe four-year curriculum. Our future physicians will havean enhanced understanding of CAM, the ability tocommunicate effectively about CAM practices withfuture patients, and the opportunity for personal growthin self-awareness and self-care. The School’s programs forbiomedical research not only enrich the whole educationalenvironment but also provide medical students with theopportunity to investigate as well as to learn.Georgetown’s concern for the spiritual and ethicaldimensions of medical practice contributes to itsdistinctiveness. That concern is exemplified in the firstyear course “Religious Traditions in Health Care” and inthe school’s four-part longitudinal curriculum in clinicalethics. Bringing together nursing and medical students,the curriculum not only addresses the major ethicaldilemmas encountered in clinical practice but also aims topromote the reflective exercise of moral agency bystudents and their acquisition of moral reasoning skills.Finally, the uniqueness of Georgetown’s School ofMedicine resides in the tangible sense of the philosophyplayed out in the basic science and the clinical experiencecreating a community of scholars and healers who arechallenged to achieve their personal potential, committedto serving the community, and free to become thephysician they wish to be. This unique communitycontributes to the care of the sick and the progress ofmedicine. Challenge, choice and community areGeorgetown’s defining differences.CURRICULUMThe undergraduate medical curriculum at Georgetown isthe dynamic product of a continuous effort by facultyand students to evaluate and improve what our futurephysicians learn and how they learn it. The curriculumfor the first two years emphasizes normal and alteredhuman structure with a series of clinical experiences andelective courses reinforcing this basic information.Moreover, the first two years provide students with acomparatively early introduction to the patient, as wellas to the spiritual and ethical dimensions of medicine.The third year provides a comprehensive introduction tothe care of patients through clinical clerkships in the2
major medical specialties. The fourth year provides awide range of experiences giving each student substantialresponsibility for the management of patient care and forthe continuation of his/her personal growth throughelective studies and research.FIRST AND SECOND YEARSThe curriculum for the first two years of medical schoolhas several distinguishing characteristics.• Only two major science courses are taught at any oneperiod of the first year to encourage a smooth transitionto the study of medicine. Moreover, students areoffered an intensive introduction to mind/bodyrelationships.• Complementary and Alternative Medicine knowledge isintegrated into the basic science courses, the bridgecourses (Intro to Health Care, Religious Traditions inHealth Care, and Selectives) and in the ClinicalClerkships (Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics,Psychiatry, OB-GYN, and Surgery). Students canparticipate in a Mind-Body Medicine Skills Group toincrease self-awareness, self-care, and stress management.• Courses such as “Patients, Physicians, and Behavior,”“Ambulatory Care,” “Physical Diagnosis,” and “LabMedicine/Problem Solving,” collectively represent anintroduction to patient care and diagnostic/therapeuticreasoning in the clinical setting.• Patient Oriented Problem Solving (POPS) modules aredesigned to convey fundamental, basic biomedicalknowledge in the context of clinical problems. Additionalsmall group learning experiences (group sizevaries from 5-20 with a faculty member who may be abasic scientist or an attending) occur in “Patients,Physicians, and Behavior”, “Introduction to HealthCare”, “Microscopic Anatomy”, “Biochemistry”,“Physiology”,• Service Based Teams are one of two selectives in the“Introduction to Health Care” course offered by facultyin the Department of Family Medicine to first yearstudents. Students may choose community-based,school-based, or clinical based programs in which theyassist community agencies in health education andoutreach programs.• A course in Religious Traditions in Health Care, whichuses clinical cases to illustrate ways in which patientsand healers in different faith traditions confront theproblems of illness, wellness, dying and death.• Parts One and Two of a four-part, longitudinalcurriculum in clinical ethics. The first part emphasizesthe nature of medical morality and various dimensionsof professionalism. The second year focuses on thetheme of moral agency and on the principal ethicaldilemmas encountered in the practice of medicine (e.g.problems concerning privacy and confidentiality,informed consent and refusal of treatment, withholdingand withdrawing therapy, etc)• Acquisition of basic clinical skills such as phlebotomy,competency in performing male and female genitalexams done on “models”, and CPR certification.• Must Pass the USMLE, Part 1.Departmental courses provide the student with thescientific knowledge basic to the practice of contemporarymedicine. The underlying logic of the curriculumleads the student from the initial study of the basicanatomic and chemical characteristics of the normal body,through a survey of the physiologic mechanisms thatregulate the function of the normal body, to the study ofthe changes that are produced by diseases, drugs andother agents. The information is presented throughlectures, demonstrations, dissection laboratory, webbased instruction, small group learning experiences andone on one encounters with an attending. In addition,students in the first year are introduced to the care ofpatients via a course emphasizing the skill of historytakingentitled “Patients, Physicians and Behavior” and acourse in ambulatory care where the student is assigned atrandom to a private physician’s office and works onemorning or afternoon a week with the physician.Students are also introduced to the broader demographicand policy dimensions of the American health care3
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