Doctoring & Clinical Skills (DCS)

Students enter medical school to become doctors and engage in a career of lifelong learning and personal and professional development. Doctoring and Clinical Skills will provide a solid foundation for each of these goals through a mentored, skills-based curriculum with faculty mentors who have long-term relationships with students across their four years of medical school. The course structure includes small groups with vertical integration so that senior students share lessons learned with more junior students. In addition, mentors offer close observation and frequent feedback on clinical skills, application of scientific principles, and demonstration of humanistic values, will prepare our students to become skilled, innovative doctors and individuals who function effectively in teams.

The course represents the primary curriculum delivered through the Learning Communities Program within Foundations of Medicine I. The curriculum begins with a 3-day transition to medical school with the goal of orienting the student to the structure of the medical school, learning resources, and the social and emotional needs of students in academically rigorous years. The Doctoring and Clinical Skills course will cover professional and personal topics important to the clinical skills of emerging doctors, including eliciting patient histories, performing physical exams, clinical decision making, and communication. Year 1 learning will occur in the context of mentored relationships with faculty in small groups and longitudinal clinical rotations with community providers. Many of the course topics will be revisited across the four years of medical school.