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Indiana University School of Medicine
Indiana University School of Medicine
MD Education Program

Foundations of Clinical Practice Two (24 weeks)

Students in the Foundations of Clinical Practice Year Two course advance clinical knowledge and skills, expand communication skills, and increase understanding of the social context of health and disease in order to prepare for third-year clinical rotations.

Course Objectives

The following course objectives align with the IU School of Medicine MD Curriculum Competencies and Institutional Learning Objectives. This alignment enables faculty and students to understand how current student learning prepares them for the next stage in training and for their ongoing practice and maintenance of certification.

Incorporate the perspectives of the patient and other health care professionals into collaborative clinical decision-making.

Demonstrate effective communication skills that permit an accurate and respectful gathering of information from patients.

Identify and demonstrate techniques for modifying communication that is sensitive to the differences, values, and needs of others, with attention to the context and purpose of the conversation.

Recognize techniques that contribute to shared decision making between physicians, patients and/or families.

Perform a basic oral presentation of patient history, physical exam, problem summary and differential diagnosis for patient encounters.

Recognize techniques that contribute to shared decision making between physicians, patients and/or families.

Prepare a basic written documentation of patient history, physical exam, problem summary and differential diagnosis for patient encounters.

Recognize the utility, benefits and limitations of an electronic health record.

Integrate basic science information into their growing clinical knowledge base, including fundamentals of disease processes with an emphasis on common conditions, basic and fundamental aspects of medical therapy and radiographic correlations.

Perform a problem-focused physical exam incorporating specific skills such as the appropriate use of an ophthalmoscope and otoscope.

Demonstrate the proper approach to specialized exams such as the neurologic exam and exam of the genitalia and joints.

Demonstrate the ability to take a problem-focused history from a patient, obtaining necessary information in an efficient manner.

Demonstrate the essentials of taking a comprehensive patient history and perform a complete physical examination.

Recognize ethical issues in a clinical case and identify the moral stakeholders, relevant ethical rights, duties, and value conflicts.

Identify and analyze alternatives in difficult ethical choices.

Incorporate information from patients’ previous medical records as an adjunct to the data gathered in the clinical encounter.

Generate appropriate differential diagnoses for a variety of patient presentations and begin to select appropriate diagnostic tests and interpret results with respect to the presumptive pathophysiological disease process.

Begin to interpret diagnostic tests using foundational science knowledge.

Apply basic principles of evidence-based medicine: formulating a clinical question; searching and retrieving medical information from various evidence-based sources.

Recognize professional behavior and perform in a manner that is consistent with the medical profession’s accepted standards.

Adhere to ethical and legal principles that govern medical practice and medical documentation including patient confidentiality.

Demonstrate an awareness of the roles and responsibilities of the different members of the healthcare team.

Within the context of patient encounters and patient care, analyze how an individual’s values, life circumstances, and familial and cultural influences can motivate his or her behavior, health care utilization, and interpretations of health care information and decision-making.

Describe the impact of local, state, and federal policies and resources on individual and community health outcomes.

Determine the appropriate preventative medicine counseling to include in the clinical encounter that will contribute to improved individual and population health.