Teaching pre-clerkship clinical skills via clinical exposure.

摘要

Context and setting Clinical skills development has increasingly become a leading objective of pre-clerkship medical education. Authentic patient care experiences foster desired clinical competencies, generate enthusiasm about learning, and facilitate passage into clerkships. At our institution, an integrated, problem-orientated curriculum includes doctoring and clinical skills 'threads' woven across the first 2 years. Within this context, we describe 2 innovative paediatrics clinical skills workshops designed to expose Year 1 and 2 medical students to clinical education objectives in a practice-based environment. Why the idea was necessary Pre-clerkship education offers medical students limited opportunities to observe or practise patient care in a clinical environment. However, students need to be situated in a clinical context to comprehend the complexity of competencies applied in patient care. The workshops in paediatric clinical care were designed to overcome the limitations of pre-clinical education and explicitly address clinical education objectives. What was done The workshops introduced students to essential skills of paediatric clinical care and provided opportunities for: 1. observing and participating in a complete paediatric history taking and physical examination; 2. synthesising medical knowledge; 3. evaluating patients and using evidence to improve knowledge and practice; 4. becoming effective communicators; 5. practising culturally competent care, and 6. understanding paediatrics in the context of the global health care system.