Clinical Transitions Course Guides Students Into Third Year of Medical School

Clinical Transitions Course Guides Students Into Third Year of Medical School

When it comes to transitions, the shift from the second year of medical school to the third is among the most significant. The first two preclinical years of medical education are heavy on lectures, studying and tests about organ systems of the body. In the third year, students are thrust into hospital wards and clinics with little preparation for the change in settings and expectations. Until now.

A new course, called Clinical Transitions, was added to the curriculum last year in the week before students begin their third-year clerkship rotations. The course contains a multitude of information about everything – except medical knowledge. It ends with students taking a reaffirmation of the oath they recited at the beginning of medical school.

“We wanted to give them a proper orientation to their third year with information that’s not as easy to pick up on their own,” said LaTasha Craig, M.D., professor of OB-GYN, who designed the course. “We talk to them about things like professionalism, implicit bias, death and dying, and working with diverse populations.”

During the segment on professionalism, students hear from clerkship directors, residents and fourth-year medical students, each providing similar information but from different points of view. Students learn about the settings of various

clerkships, how to read the environment, what to do and when to ask questions.

They also hear about interprofessionalism and their role on a healthcare team. “They will be working with nurses, pharmacists, dietitians, lactation consultants, social workers and more – all the people it takes to care for patients,” Craig said. “It’s so important to appreciate each other’s skills.”

Learning how to work with diverse patient populations is another critical element of the course. This requires purposefully addressing implicit bias and how it may affect their care of patients as well as their work with families and caregivers. Students hear from faculty members about how to understand this bias and how to interact with patients across many different populations, whether in regard to ethnic, pediatric, geriatric or LGBTQ populations.

Students also hear a lecture on death and dying. When they begin rounding on patients, students will inevitably face death, many of them for the first time. “We not only want to teach them how to care for a patient who is dying, but also how to speak with families and how to cope with witnessing death,” Craig said. “We don’t want students to become immune to the strong feelings that come with death, but they also need tools for working through it.”

his battle last October. His father talks to students about the compassionate care his son received, but also about some of the poor care that added to the despair his family was feeling. But the biggest impact of the talk is that students witnessed his grief and gained a better understanding of how their professional lives will be interwoven with families’ deepest loss and greatest joys.

“We intentionally follow that with a reaffirmation of the oath that they took as first-year students,” Craig said. “It reminds them that they are about to begin experiencing the ultimate reason they began medical school: to care for patients.”