AOA Guide to the Second Year

Jefferson Medical College Alpha Omega Alpha Guide to the Second Year

Introduction to Clinical Medicine II

This course is meant to be the second part of the course you had first year- ICM. Basically, it is your “how to be a well rounded doctor” course. You will again be assigned to small groups with a preceptor (or 2) from the clinical faculty. At the beginning of the year you will have to do some more Standardized patient video encounters that the group will watch. Don’t worry, they don’t care about your clinical knowledge, they just want to see your communication skills.

When FCM starts, you will meet more often with your small groups. You will be assigned a debate, an article review, and a “dialogue”. These projects will be explained in more detail and are straightforward. You will work on teams within your group so it does not come out to be that much work.

During FCM, you will also have “Grand Rounds” every few weeks. These are mandatory attendance, so show up and sign-in. It actually benefits you to stay until the end because at the end they give you a 10-15 minute lecture on some ACM topic. This might be about types of articles, statistics, or end-of-life issues. You will be tested on these topics on each exam. There are usually 3 ACM questions on every FCM exam. They will periodically send you your ACM “test grade” which is just a composite of how many of those questions you got right and wrong.

In addition to the questions on the FCM tests, you will have occasional separate ICM quizzes on various topics (statistics, for example). Review the lectures ahead of time, but don’t stress too much over these.

You will be graded on the test questions, quiz grades, and also graded by your small group leaders. They have to nominate you for honors. Be sure to be an active part of the group because participation is a mandatory part of this course.

Last updated: March 2010