Course Number: Course Title:
269501011; 269501012; 26950220; 26950221 Learning Communities 101/102 & 201/202
Course Director: E-mail: Phone: Office:
M. Stephen Baxter, MD Stephen.baxter@uc.edu 513-558-8107 MSB 1501
Coordinator: E-mail: Phone: Office:
David Paulik, MA David.paulik@uc.edu 513-558-5580 MSB G453D
Course Overview/What Will I Learn from this Experience? First, the overall goal of the Learning Communities is to provide clinical education that will help integrate all aspects of the curriculum over the first two years of medical school. The cornerstone of the Learning Community activities is case discussion. Each week students are given patient cases, which provide clinical background and relevance for the basic sciences they are learning in the Organ Blocks. These case discussions will occur in small groups that are facilitated by a physician with clinical training. Students will develop clinical problem-solving and critical thinking skills from the beginning of medical school. To prepare for these case discussions, students need to seek out information from a variety of resources in order to answer probe questions about the case, prior to meeting to discuss the case. Development of these self-directed learning skills is very important to one’s success as a physician, so we work to develop these skills early in the curriculum. Your ability to perform these self-directed learning skills will be part of the assessment of your performance and you will be given feedback on this. Another benefit of the Learning Communities is the opportunity to work in small groups. Relationship building and teamwork is an important part of being a successful health care professional. No one person has all the answers or the exact same set of skills as another student, so working together to solve problems or complete a task is an everyday occurrence in medicine (e.g. the use of consultants.) In addition to clinical thinking skills, Learning Communities focuses on teaching the many aspects of the art of medicine that do not fall under a particular specialty or domain such as physiology or internal medicine. While much of this material is covered in Physician and Society, a small group format is the best way to address many of these topics and issues, which really boil down to how to effectively interact with patients and the health care system, and the potential hurdles one will face as a physician. Page 1 of 9