VCOM College Catalog and Student Handbook

Course Descriptions - Osteopathic Medical School Year Three

Courses/Clinical Rotations : • (MED 8000) Foundations of Clinical Medicine: 2 credit hours

The Foundations of Clinical Medicine (FCM) course provides a comprehensive curriculum designed to assist students in improving their mastery of core fundamental concepts applicable to clinical rotation. FCM emphasizes diagnostic medicine, physician-patient communication, research basics and responsible opioid prescribing. • (MED 8017) Clinical Rural and Medically Underserved Population Primary Care: 4 credit hours Primary Care is a field that is beloved by physicians because of the variety of opportunities offered. In rural areas, not only will primary care trained physicians work in outpatient settings, but often in emergency rooms, hospitals, specialty clinics, and urgent care centers. They also often assist in surgery and provide obstetrical and newborn care. In medically underserved urban areas, primary care physicians care for patients with a host of complicated medical illnesses. A vast array of settings exists for primary care in a medically underserved area, including rural and inner-city experiences. The primary care clinic is also a place where many office-based procedures occur including but not limited to biopsies, laceration repairs, and minor fracture treatment. Working with patients on preventive health care management, such as vaccinations, preventive screening tests and measures to prevent disease, and one on one health counseling occur during this rotation. Students have the opportunity to incorporate the “whole-person” approach, a principle valued in osteopathic medicine, and to develop their osteopathic manipulative medicine skills through clinical case-based OMM workshops. • (MED 8018) Rural and Medically Underserved Population Primary Care Modules: 1 credit hour The course evaluates students' acquisition of discipline-specific knowledge through structured didactic activities, clinical encounter and procedure logging, and a discipline-specific end-of-rotation examination. Emphasis is placed on understanding the healthcare needs of rural and medically underserved populations while developing clinical reasoning, documentation, osteopathic principles and practice, and self-directed learning skills. Students complete assigned readings, online learning modules, case-based exercises, and assessments designed to support competency in providing high-quality care to diverse and underserved communities. • (MED 8020) Clinical Family Medicine: 4 credit hours The Family Medicine rotation is primarily done in the ambulatory setting, however, will often include experiences accompanying the faculty member in the inpatient setting, nursing home or minor care. Family Medicine is a specialty where students can learn to diagnose and manage common acute and chronic conditions, which present to the primary care setting. Students will also learn to discriminate emergent ambulatory conditions from non-emergent. During the rotation, students should begin to acquire the essential knowledge to practice cost effective outpatient health care, often in a rural setting. Depending on the practice, students may also be exposed to the hospital setting providing care to the patients of the family medicine physician. Because family medicine has the unique distinction of providing continuity of care for the entire family ‘from birth to death’, students will be expected to have a variety of ambulatory exposures including general medical cases, pediatric cases, geriatric cases, office surgical procedures, osteopathic manipulative medicine and common mental health disorders. Students should also acquire skills in preventive medicine for male and female patients of all age groups according to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The student should also have exposure to the business of medicine in the ambulatory setting. • (MED 8025) Family Medicine Modules: 1 credit hour The course evaluates students’ acquisition of family medicine knowledge through structured didactic activities, clinical encounter and procedure logging, and a discipline-specific end-of-rotation examination.

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