Introduction to Physical Examination UNIV 3784-004, Mondays 3:00-5:00pm, Rowe 320 at UConn Storrs
Instructor: Keat Sanford
[If interested in taking this course, please email Dr. Sanford to request a permission number. You must include an explanation of your prior clinical background and preparation for taking the course, along with why the course would benefit your educational plan.]
This course is intended to provide college students interested in the healing professions some grounding and experience in learning how patients and families experience illness, and in learning what it’s like to be a professional health provider. The course will concentrate on developing skills to listen, interpret, organize, and report the stories, data, symptoms, and conditions patients and families report and present (generally referred to as the patient history & physical examination), to provide further training in clinical reasoning and decision making, to teach the preliminaries of the Review of Systems and the Physical Exam, as well as gain an appreciation for medical laboratory tests and imaging.
The students are expected to understand and appreciate the importance of developing excellent communication skills and professionalism as integral aspects of their broad preparation for careers in the health professions. The course will consist of some didactic sessions, some interactive discussion sessions where students and facilitators share experiences, visiting clinical professors for various aspects of the physical exam, some hands-on interactions with mock and real patients and health providers, and discussion of related literature. The course is intended for those interested in learning about and reflecting on the experiences of being a patient and a health provider.
The course assists students in learning how to elicit complete stories, in learning how to organize and focus the writing of these stories, in practicing out loud the reporting of these stories for the benefit of both patients and providers, and in learning the format, style, and practice of the physical examination component of the patient-physician interaction. While students will learn the efficient professional template for reporting the history and physical exam findings, the intent of the course is to have students appreciate and reflect on the importance of the doctor-patient relationship and to learn and appreciate the basic skills involved in completing the medical history and physical exam – what’s its like to be a patient and what it’s like to be a healer. A background in the sciences is expected.
For more information, contact: Dr. Keat Sanford at keat.sanford@uconn.edu