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Clinical Sciences and Skills

 

The Virginia Tech Carilion School of Medicine begins teaching its students clinical sciences and skills early in their medical education, integrating it into the curriculum from the very beginning.

 

 

 

Standardized Patients

Standardized patients are trained to simulate the roles of patients so students can interview and perform basic exams with them, just as they would a real patient.  Students are given ample time to practice their skills with standardized patients, starting first with communication, learning the best way to interview patients.  Special emphasis is put on students' self-reflection and empathy.  Students then move onto basic physical exams such as listening to a patient's heart and breathing and checking blood pressure.  All of these skills are taught by our faculty then practiced and reviewed with the faculty present.  In addition, many of the practice sessions are recorded on video, so students can review the interactions and learn from them.  Finally, each student is tested on the clinical skills work with standardized patients at the end of each block during Phase 1 (Years 1 and 2).

Longitudinal Ambulatory Care Experience (LACE)

Each student is assigned to an ambulatory clinic for one-half day per month from the beginning of Phase 1.  Students will continue this partnership through the end of Year 2 before they begin clinical rotations in Years 3 and 4.  The goal of LACE is to provide students with a longitudinal, real, clinical experience from the start of their medical education.  The program emphasizes clinical skills development, creates a positive physician role-model, encourages interprofessional health care relationships, and demonstrates the importance of critical thinking and research in a clinical practice.