Description

MISSION STATEMENT

The educational goal of undergraduate medical education is to produce a graduate who is knowledgeable in the practice of primary care medicine and who has been introduced to a variety of clinical specialties and subspecialties. Being a physician also encompasses the roles of researcher, educator and advocate for community health. The Selective Project provides students with the opportunity to establish an in-depth experiential and knowledge base in one of these areas.

Students will design an independent project of research, education or community health. For their chosen topic and area of work, students will learn and apply the appropriate methodology and skills. Students may work individually or with other students on a Selective Project. Students who have done research, community health or education previously, and who wish to continue work in this area, are encouraged to do this. The Selective provides an opportunity to build on previous educational experiences and integrate learning from the first three years in the implementation of an independent project.

All students must identify a UCHC faculty as a preceptor for this experience. For those experiences being conducted at other institutions, an onsite preceptor must also be identified. Completion requirements include a formal oral presentation and a paper written in the form of a journal article. Students should follow the guidelines and formatting of a journal appropriate to their topic and methods. For more information and Selectives examples are available on Black Board and the CBE web site http://cbe.uchc.edu. In addition, for specific questions, you may e-mail Professor Lewis at lewisj@nso.uchc.edu.

RESEARCH:

Goals

• To identify the contribution of research to improvement of clinical programs and community health
• To acquire research skills and methodologies
• To collaborate with colleagues from a variety of fields and subspecialties

Expectations

The student will:

• identify a research problem
• conduct a literature search
• identify hypotheses and develop an experimental design
• select appropriate methodology
• define time table
• demonstrate flexibility and problem-solving in conduct of research
• analyze data
• describe the results in the form of a "journal article" and a professional oral presentation (appropriate audiences include professional meetings, Scholars Groups, UCHC department seminars, or specially arranged sessions for UCHC faculty, students, and/or community representatives).

Research skills are important for physicians in their roles as health care providers as well as users of, and participants in, research. Students will know about the general process of developing a research proposal from the Phase 1 curriculum in biostatistics, epidemiology and electives. The Selective Project provides a significant opportunity to develop, conduct and analyze independent research.

EDUCATION:

Goals

• To prepare students for their educational roles in communities, academic teaching, patient instruction and continuing education
• To promote understanding of the process of education
• To broaden student teaching experience

Expectations

The student will:

• identify a medical/health education project
• design an educational activity which includes objectives, content, and teaching and evaluation methods
• use educational methodologies that consider learner needs
• develop and carry out a project evaluation
• describe the results in the form of a "journal article" and a professional oral presentation (appropriate audiences include professional meetings, Scholars Groups, UCHC department seminars, or specially arranged sessions for UCHC faculty, students, and/or community representatives).

This selective will prepare students for their teaching roles as physicians. This selective would include information on teaching and learning, support for students teaching with faculty, and opportunities for teaching independently. Observation of different teaching styles should be part of the curriculum; there are many opportunities for students to observe teaching styles at the Health Center. The curriculum may also include videotaping and analysis of presentations as well as presentation of a topic to several different audiences - peers, community people, and faculty.

COMMUNITY HEALTH INTERVENTION:

Goals

• To stimulate interest in population health
• To develop skills in addressing community health problems
• To increase awareness of community resources
• To develop understanding of socio-cultural factors which affect health

Expectations

The student will:

• identify the community in which he/she intends to work and identify a community preceptor and aUCHC faculty preceptor
• identify needs and resources within the chosen population
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• design a project to address one of the identified needs
• implement/conduct the project with the approval of the proposal by the community preceptor and the UCHC faculty preceptor
• complete an evaluation of the project
• describe the results in the form of a "journal article" and a professional oral presentation (appropriate audiences include professional meetings, Scholars Groups, UCHC department seminars, or specially arranged sessions for UCHC faculty, students, and/or community representatives).

Public health is an important component in the curriculum. Physicians see sentinel cases representing problems that may have multiple and broad based causes. Therefore, physicians need to be knowledgeable about the communities in which they practice. The community health selective provides an opportunity for students to become knowledgeable about a specific community, assess its health needs, develop and implement a public health intervention and see how that intervention works. While students have opportunities to be involved in community health projects during Phases 1 and 2 of the curriculum, they have to distribute their work over a long period of time and to balance their involvement with course work, exams, etc. The selective provides a significant opportunity to concentrate effort on a specific intervention.

Project ideas should be discussed with Selectives committee members as soon as students have identified their interest.A handbook of potential projects is available on Black Board and previous student projects are available for review in the CBE Office.

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