Medical Students
Clinical Continuum
Course Goals | M1 Components | M2 Components | Attendance | Grading | FAQ's |
Contact Us
Course Goals
Throughout your first and second year, the Clinical Continuum will provide a sequence of learning activities to support your professional growth. Clinical Continuum skills will be useful in integrating material from your basic science courses into your understanding of health, disease, and medical care. The overall goal is to prepare you to assume responsibility in the care of patients during your clinical rotations.
Components of the M1 Clinical Continuum
Introduction to Patient Care (August - October):
This year's Introduction includes required training in infection control, an introduction to the patient-centered approach to care, and cultural competence, and training in blood pressure measurement. Questions about IPC activities or schedules should go to Stephanie Shaw, Course Coordinator, at 456-8207.
Mentor Program (October - May)
This part of the Clinical Continuum provides you with some relevant clinical experience. You will be assigned to a physician in the greater Milwaukee area for a monthly, three-hour, clinical office experience. With your Mentor, you will have an opportunity to observe and participate in real patient care situations. The relationship with your Mentor also supports your professional socialization and development. (Traditional Mentor program).
A select group of students will participate in a special geriatrics-oriented mentor experience that includes regular meetings with Geriatrics faculty and a relationship with a healthy elderly person. (The Senior Mentor program).
The Family Medicine Track will be offered to 10 interested M1 students. It will include four lunchtime sessions presenting specific patient care skills, four clinic sessions with a family physician mentor and a longitudinal relationship with a family.
The Humanities Track is a pilot program where students will have four (4) regularly scheduled clinic sessions with their Mentors, but will also participate in (6) sessions emphasizing the integration of Humanities into medicine, including visual arts, literature and music. Sessions will include group outings and opportunities for reflection and creative expression.
Course Coordinator: Stephanie Shaw 456-8207
Senior Mentor Program Coordinator: 456-8710
Mentor Program Director: Joan Bedinghaus MD, 456-8207
Medical Information Management (MIM) (100 students October - February, 100 students February - May)
This course will introduce students to the skills needed to understand and to use new developments in medicine. Students will learn basic epidemiology concepts such as study designs, risk, causality, and statistical inference. Students will be expected to interpret and to critically evaluate reports of medical research, in order to apply them to patient care decision-making. The course will use a combination of lectures and case-based small group exercises. Case examples will be chosen to enhance other basic science courses or to illustrate common clinical topics likely to be encountered during the preceptor experience.
Course Coordinator: Stephanie Shaw 456-8207
Course Director: Linda Meurer, MD 456-8207
Foundations of Human Behavior (100 students October - February, 100 students February - May)
This course will present the basic knowledge base about human behavior from developmental and integrated family perspectives. Learning activities will include a 12-hour lecture series at the beginning of the course, an 11-week series of Problem-Based Learning sessions, and six sessions of Medical Interviewing using standardized patients.
Course Director: Michael McBride, MD
Course Coordinator: Kristine James 456-8992
Coordinator of Interviewing sessions: Stephanie Shaw 456-8207
Director of Interviewing sessions: Joan Bedinghaus, MD 456-8252
Components of the M2 Clinical Continuum:
The Clinical Continuum continues through the M2 year with the following courses:
Clinical Examination and Reasoning: This course focuses on physical exam techniques, system by system with patient demonstrations, followed by five precepted complete histories and physicals. The course also includes small group discussions focusing on oral case presentation, clinical reasoning, and other skills.
Medical Ethics and Palliative Care: Through a combination of lectures, panel discussions, and small-group case-oriented instruction, students are presented with a practical introduction to the current body of ethical and legal foundations of the practice of medicine. Students learn to address a number of challenging ethical issues drawn from clinical practice.
Course Coordinator: Mary Olson, 456-8692
Course Director: Arthur Derse, MD 456-8582
Linda Blust, MD 805-4607
Health Policy: This course will introduce students to key issues in health policy including determinants of health, organization and financing of the health care system, medical-legal aspects of healthcare, disparities in health and health care, and how physicians (and medical students) can influence health policy.
Course Coordinator: Jenny Her, 456-8762
Course Director: Peter Layde, MD 456-8762
Attendance
Most of the learning in the Clinical Continuum involves the development of certain attitudes and skills. Since practice is an important element in the development of any skill, several portions of the Continuum require attendance.
Attendance at all Clinical Activities, small group learning sessions, PBL's, and Mentor visits will be required. Unexcused absences are unacceptable breaches of professional responsibility and will be considered a failure for that experience. Timely communications about absence-causing personal emergencies are expected. Contact your small group teacher or the course coordinator.
The mentor visits are an academic requirement and must be completed during the academic year. They cannot be "made up" in the summer. Students are responsible for reporting problems with scheduling mentor visits to the Continuum Office in time for possible alternatives to be arranged.
Grades
Students receive a grade for each component course as well as an overall Clinical Continuum grade each year. Students must receive at least a passing grade in each component course to pass the Clinical Continuum. Each component course explains its grading criteria in its syllabus.
M1: 33% comes from MIM, 33% from FHB, 10% from the IPC block, and 24% from the Mentor experience.
M2: 55% CER, 35% Ethics and Palliative Medicine, 10% Health Policy.
A Fail in any of the components results in a Fail for the entire Clinical Continuum.
FAQ's
- How is Clinical Continuum graded?
Each academic year, you will receive a grade for each of the components listed above and an overall grade for the Continuum. The overall grade is a weighted average of the components.
A failing grade in any of the listed components will result in a failing grade for the Continuum as a whole.
- Which courses make up the Clinical Continuum?
In the M1 year: Foundations of Human Behavior (includes Interviewing) 33%
Medical Information Management (MIM) 33%
Mentor Course (includes Intro. to Patient Care) 34%
In the M2 year: Ethics and Palliative Medicine (35%)
Clinical Examination and Reasoning (55%)
Health Policy (10%)
-
How will the grades appear on my transcript?
Here is an example of M1 grades:
Clinical Continuum I: High Pass
Foundations of Human Behavior: High Pass
Medical Information Management: Honors
Mentor: High Pass
Here is an example of M2 grades:
Clinical Continuum II: Pass
Medical Ethics and Palliative Medicine: High Pass
Clinical Examination and Reasoning: Pass
Health Policy: Pass
Contacting Our Office
The Clinical Continuum office is located in the Department of Family and Community Medicine, in the Curative Rehabilitation Services Building in the northwest corner of the 1st floor. By phone, you can reach Dr. Bedinghaus and Stephanie Shaw at 456-8207. Our e-mail addresses are jbmd@mcw.edu and sshaw@mcw.edu.
Kristine James, the Foundations of Human Behavior Coordinator, is located in the Department of Psychiatry, in the Tosa Center, 1155 N. Mayfair Rd., Room 3855D. You can reach her by phone or e-mail at 456-8992 or kjames@mcw.edu. Dr. Michael McBride, the Course Director, can be reached by e-mail at mmcbride@mcw.edu. He checks this e-mail about once a week.