VCOM College Catalog and Student Handbook

Message from the Campus Deans The Campus Deans are responsible for ensuring that students on their campus receive a quality educational experience. The Campus Deans oversee all academic programs including the pre-clinical and the clinical curriculum. The Associate Dean for Pre-Clinical Education, the Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs, the Associate Dean for OMS-4 and GME, and the Associate Dean for Simulation and Technology directly oversees these educational areas and reports to the Campus Dean of their respective campus. The faculty, Discipline Chairs, and the Associate Deans of VCOM have successfully developed and deliver a common curriculum across campuses. This curriculum is engaging and incorporates novel instructional methods in addition to the traditional lectures and laboratory experiences, these include such delivery methods as student directed learning modules; small group learning experiences to enhance problem-based learning skills, cooperation, and mutual respect; and Inter professional Early Clinical Experiences (IP-ECE). Prioritized in the VCOM curriculum is the hands-on learning experiences through the integration of instruction in osteopathic principles and practice within the Principles of Primary Care course. In this course, students develop skills in osteopathic structural examination and manipulative treatment and incorporate these skills in the comprehensive physical examination of the patient. It is through this integration that our students begin to embrace the osteopathic philosophy from the onset of their training. Diverse early clinical experiences in the pre-clinical years provide students with an appreciation for inter professional patient-centered care. Each campus provides training for students in state-of-the-art Simulation and Educational Technology Centers where faculty create realistic, thought provoking standardized patient presentations and physician-driven high fidelity simulation learning scenarios, allowing students to be assessed in the most “real-world setting” that can be provided. A key element of this training is the faculty facilitated feedback to the students in a small group student review format. As early as the end of the first year, within the Cardio Pulmonary Block, students participate in a diverse array of cardiopulmonary experiences in the simulation centers with a focus toward being part of a multidisciplinary team. Subsequent blocks include simulated experiences in advanced obstetrical education, pediatric simulations, and students participate in Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Disaster Life Support training which helps to prepare students for transition to their clinical rotations in years three and four. VCOM students also have the opportunity to make a difference as they learn. Beginning as early as the second year, students are involved in community outreach to rural and medically underserved populations. VCOM also offers students the opportunity to attend VCOM medical mission trips to countries where VCOM operates year-round medical facilities in such countries as the Dominican Republic and Honduras. Here, under supervision of VCOM faculty, students are able to incorporate the clinical skills they have gained for the betterment of appreciative individuals who otherwise have limited access to health care. Further opportunities at these sites exist for approved third and fourth year students for international clinical rotations. VCOM students also participate in early clinical experiences in the second year, where students learn while providing clinical service through mini-medical schools, work in free clinics, health fairs, and other outreach services. In the third and fourth year of education, the College has a well-developed and well-organized program of clinical education where VCOM students participate in core rotations at a core regional site with appointed and paid faculty advancing the clinical development of osteopathic medical students in Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, Surgery, Psychiatry, Internal Medicine, and Emergency Medicine. The VCOM faculty and staff promote growth and vitality in teaching, research, scholarship, service and outreach, with their focus on excellence in medical education.

Matthew Cannon , DO, FACOFP

Ronald Januchowski , DO

Heath Parker , DO

Mark Sanders , DO, JD, MPH, LLM, FACOFP, MS

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