Year I and II - Clinical Skills

In the Clinical Skills course, students learn the basic skills necessary for interaction with patients. These skills include interview/medical history and physical examination techniques. Students interview and examine what are called standardized patients from the Standardized Patient Program. The latter group is comprised of persons who have been trained to portray specific medical problems and behavioral roles and to give constructive feedback to the students.

Students begin clinical experiences within the first few weeks of medical school. Interviewing techniques and physical examination skills, which students learn through encounters with simulated patients, is strengthened through clinical experiences in the offices of primary care physicians throughout the first two years of training. Students are matched within Georgia communities, which they visit throughout medical school to learn about personal care, disease prevention and health promotion. These clinical and community-oriented educational programs reinforce and bring to life the paper cases, which are used to learn the basic sciences within the Biomedical Problems Program program.