FMK Longitudinal Elements

Hands-on Learning through Service

Physical Diagnosis (PDx)

How do I take a patient’s history? What’s the best way to conduct a patient examination? How about tips for the write-up?

Answer all these questions and more in PDx, a first-year clinic-based course. Physical diagnosis uses role play dramatization, simulation, standardized patients, and clinical experiences in various settings— all for the purpose of developing your familiarity and comfort with physical diagnosis skills.

Plus, with a group of four students and two faculty preceptors, you’ll be sure to receive personalized instruction and careful feedback each day.

Foundations of Health Care Delivery 1: Continuity Clinical Experience

In FHD1, you’ll spend one afternoon a week as a full-fledged member of a clinical care team. You’ll start caring for individual patients while learning about the larger care-delivery system.

By the end of this clinic-based course, you will:

• Have developed the systems-level skills necessary to provide effective and equitable patient-centered care
• Be ready to integrate health systems sciences with clinical care
• Serve as a respectful and personable health care professional

You’ll also have the chance to join an interdisciplinary clinical team made up of medical, nursing, pharmacy, and social work students through VPIL. This interprofessional clinical work stretches over two years, fulfilling portions of the FHD requirements.

During M1, you’ll also be critically evaluating clinical research in CASE and diving into professional growth with your Learning Community.