SUNY Downstate College of Medicine Curriculum Renewal

Domains of Competence:

These are six broadly defined groups of knowledge, skills and attitudes required of all graduates at the end of 4 years as depicted in the following graphic.

Standards:

Standards are summary statements representing the knowledge, skills and attitudes required at the end of the 4 year curriculum. Each is grouped into a number of closely related areas originating from multiple curricular subject areas.

Goals:

Goals are measurable knowledge, skills and observable behaviors that every physician, regardless of specialty, needs to demonstrate. Each goal is comprised of several learning objectives.

Learning Objectives:

Learning objectives are what a student is required to know or do at the end of a learning activity. These are stated in terms of observable behaviors.

Benchmarks:

Benchmarks are used to evaluate progress in each of the competencies at points in time when we are determining promotion to the next section of the curriculum. They are defined at four points in time in the curriculum: end of first year, before clerkships, after core clerkships, and mid-fourth year.

Graduates must demonstrate an awareness of the relationship between themselves and the patient, community, and healthcare system as well as recognize the impact on optimizing patient care.

Standards

1. Identify and understand the main components and issues of organization, finance, and delivery of health services and public health services in the US.
2. Identify and understand the importance of medical practice and delivery systems and how they affect medical care.
3. Understand the social, behavioral, environmental and biological determinants of the health of individuals and populations and how the medical and public health care systems can effect health.

Graduates must demonstrate a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities, adherence to ethical principles, and sensitivity to a diverse patient population. Graduates must also assess personal values and priorities in order to maintain an appropriate balance of personal and professional commitments.

Standards

1. Demonstrate respect, compassion, integrity and altruism; accountability to patients, society, and the profession; and a commitment to excellence and on-going professional development.
2. Demonstrate a commitment to ethical principles pertaining to provision or withholding of clinical care, confidentiality of patient information, informed consent, and business practice.
3. Demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to patients' culture, age, gender, and disabilities, socioeconomic level and education level.
4. Demonstrate commitment to excellence in personal/professional development, through ongoing self-directed learning and self reflection.

Graduates must be able to demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in effective information exchange and teaming with patients, their patients families, and professional associates.

Standards

1. Create and sustain a therapeutic and ethically sound relationship with patients of all ages.
2. Communicate effectively and demonstrate caring and respectful behaviors when interacting with patients and their families.
3. Use effective listening skills and communicate clearly, both verbally and in written form, with patients, patients' families, and colleagues to exchange information for patient care.
4. Work effectively with others as a member or leader of a health care team or other professional group.

Graduates must be able to investigate and evaluate their patient care practices, appraise and assimilate scientific evidence, and improve their patient care practices.

Standards

1. Use patient care experience to continually improve ability to care for patients.
2. Use information technology to manage information, access on-line medical information; and support their own education, and provide the best care for patients.
3. Make informed decisions about diagnostic and therapeutic interventions based on best evidence.

Graduates must be able to provide patient care that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective for the treatment of health problems and the promotion of health.

Standards

1. Gather complete and focused histories in an organized fashion, appropriate to the clinical situation and patient language ability.
2. Conduct relevant, complete and focused physical examinations in patients of all age groups.
3. Make informed decisions about clinical testing based on patient information and preferences, up-to-date scientific evidence, and clinical judgment and interpret results.
4. Use patterns of clinical reasoning to formulate a differential diagnosis
5. Develop and carry out a management plan with preventive, therapeutic, and palliative interventions based on patient information and preferences, up-to-date scientific evidence, and clinical judgment.
6. Use information technology to support patient care decisions and patient education.
7. Understand the indications and necessity of all medical and invasive procedures considered essential for patient care and perform basic procedures.
8. Document encounters efficiently and concisely.
9. Know when to collaborate with health care professionals, including those from other disciplines, to provide patient-focused care.

Graduates must demonstrate knowledge about established and evolving biomedical, clinical, and cognate (e.g. epidemiological and social-behavioral) sciences and the application of this knowledge to patient care.

Standards

1. Know, understand and apply general and fundamental biologic principles at the macro- and microscopic levels of the structure, function, and mechanisms that underlie human structure and function in normal and disease states, and how these relate to health and health maintenance.
2. Know, understand and apply the molecular, biochemical and cellular processes that underlie human structure and function in normal and disease states.
3. Know, understand and apply the various underlying causes of disease and disability and their mechanisms leading to clinical presentation.
4. Appreciate the limits of current knowledge and the need for scientific investigation to further knowledge.
5. Know, understand and apply the principles of pharmacology and therapeutics, and the processes of therapeutic decision-making and disease management.
6. Know, understand and apply the principles of diagnosis of system-specific and cross-system diseases and disorders.