VCOM College Catalog and Student Handbook

• (MED 7228) Principles of Primary Care and Osteopathic Medicine I: 1.5 credit hours The Principles of Primary Care course extends through all eight blocks. Communication skills in patient interviewing, patient partnering, and the medical history are taught in lecture and clinical laboratory environment. The student is introduced to the use of his or her basic senses including smell, touch, auscultation, visual inspection, and hearing to assess a patient’s basic presentation, vital signs, and to perform a postural analysis. This course is taught in a lecture and clinical laboratory setting. Written or computer examinations, OMM practical examinations, and Standardized Patient examinations are used as methods in evaluating the student. The student is introduced to the role of other healthcare professionals. The student is also introduced to the principles of prevention that will follow in each subsequent block. • (MED 7229) Integrated Clinical Cases in Foundations of Medicine: 1 credit hour The Integrated Clinical Cases course is a case-based by system course utilizing evidence-based medicine. Clinical skills and professional development are major curricular focuses that span all four years, providing early patient exposure and the means to develop outstanding clinical thinking, technical skills, and a sense of professionalism. In the Integrated Clinical Cases course, pre-clinical phase, substantial curricular time is devoted to clinical skills and reasoning and professional development activities. Students meet in small groups as they work with clinical faculty to apply interview and examinations skills to the diagnosis and treatment of patients and the personal and professional aspects of becoming a physician. These activities provide focused opportunities to learn through cooperation and collaboration, which helps students develop their abilities to work with groups of colleagues and co-workers in a professional environment. • (MED 7258) Professional, Ethical, and Legal Concepts in Medicine I: 1.5 credit hours This course covers the foundational principals of professionalism and ethics as it applies to the practice of medicine. The course begins with the history of osteopathic medicine and includes the Osteopathic Oath and the Medical Code of Ethics. The course then advances to legal and ethical expectations of physicians and medical students. The course also introduces the students to the U.S. healthcare system, medical licensing and governance, HIPAA and the various professional medical organizations. It covers the introduction to basic ethical concepts involved in the practices of medicine as well as other humanistic principles. These skills form the basis of physician professionalism in the clinical practice of medicine. • (MED 7335) Comprehensive Assessment I: Foundations of Medicine: 1 credit hour Osteopathic physicians must demonstrate the understanding and application of established and evolving principles of foundational biomedical and clinical sciences integral to the practice of patient-centered osteopathic medical care. This assessment provides a benchmark for the osteopathic medical student to use as a measure of that integrated learning process using a comprehensive, multiple-choice format completed at the conclusion of Block 1. These questions will help students not only with developing a knowledge base for the foundations of medicine, but also with the comprehension skills required to perform well on future Board testing.

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