Patient, Physician & Society I & II (PPS)

Patient and Physician (Clinical Skills)

The M1-M2 curriculum includes a comprehensive, two-year sequence of distinct units in clinical skills. All are part of the "Patient, Physician & Society" (PPS) course, and are typically taught to one-fourth of the class on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday afternoons. Sessions generally run from 1:00-3:30 pm. Each unit is preceded by a faculty orientation/teaching skills workshop session.

Communication Skills (COM)

First-year students meet in groups of 10-12 with their preceptor for an hour-long seminar to discuss interviewing skills. They then practice these skills for an additional hour in groups of 3 with trained patient instructors. Faculty teach one afternoon per week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday), 1:00-3:00 or 2:00-4:00 P.M. The unit starts the last week of September, with one week of large group activities led by the unit director. The 10 teaching sessions faculty lead with small groups begin the last week in September and end the second week of December. The total commitment is for 11 teaching sessions (one week is off for Thanksgiving) plus one a 1-hour orientation.

The unit director is Cheryl Wilkes, MD. If you would like to learn more about this unit you may reach her via e-mail at cwilkes@nmff.org or please contact the course coordinator Allison Hammer via e-mail at a-hammer@northwestern.edu.

Physical Examination Skills (PEX)

First-year students learn basic physical examination skills in groups of 8, using a combination of patient-instructors and peer examination formats. Patient instructors are used to teach the breast, pelvic, and male GU/rectal examination; students practice on standardized patients or peers for the remainder of the physical exam. Students and faculty view DVDs.

The unit director is Toshi Uchida, MD. If you would like to learn more about this unit you may reach her at tuchida@nmff.org or please contact the course coordinator Allison Hammer via e-mail at a-hammer@northwestern.edu.

Public Health and Medicine (PHM)

This unit is taught in the spring to first-year students. The unit is intended to familiarize students with the techniques and tools for analyzing the effects of population-based realities and forces that can influence the nature of illness and disability and the possible responses to therapeutic interventions. The important interactions between practicing physicians and the Public Health systems will be outlined. In addition, examples of interventions with whole populations that affect the health and well-being of its individual members will be discussed both by lecturers and in group discussion of illustrative cases.

Time commitment is one afternoon per week, (Tuesday or Wednesday) 1:00-4:00 pm for a total of four weeks. The unit begins in mid-April and ends mid-May.

The unit director is Rebecca Wurtz. For more information about the unit please contact Dr. Wurtz via email at rwurtz@northwestern.edu or please contact the course coordinator Allison Hammer via e-mail at a-hammer@northwestern.edu.

M2 Clinical Skills

This unit allows faculty to guide a second-year student's acquisition and refinement of core clinical skills while working mainly in the outpatient setting, one-on-one. This course offers faculty the potential for rewarding and enduring mentoring relationships.

There are three key components to the M2 Clinical Skills unit:

1. Longitudinal outpatient experience: This is the section of the course where faculty is needed as students will spend three hours in the afternoon every other week with an attending physician preceptor in his/her outpatient practice, September through early May. Students will learn and perform focused clinical tasks in the context of routine patient care, accomplishing specific objectives in each session. Preceptors will each work with two students who attend clinic one at a time, on alternate weeks, during an afternoon clinic session Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday.
2. Inpatient experience: Five times during the year, when one of the preceptor's patients is hospitalized, students will conduct a complete history and physical on this inpatient. The preceptor is not expected to directly observe the interview or examination but instead will review the student's write-up and provide constructive feedback. Course directors will help to locate hospitalized patients for preceptors who have too few patients admitted to the hospital.
3. Didactics sessions and patient instructors: During intervening weeks when a student is not working with his/her outpatient preceptor, other faculty will demonstrate history and physical exam skills and students will practice with patient instructors. Outpatient preceptors are not responsible for this component.

The unit director is John Butter, MD. If you would like to learn more about this unit you may reach him via e-mail jbutter@nmff.org or please contact the course coordinator Allison Hammer via e-mail at a-hammer@northwestern.edu.

Physician & Society Units with Small Group Teachers

In addition to the Clinical Skills series, the M1-M2 PPS curriculum includes a second series of afternoon units grouped broadly under the heading of "Physician and Society." These units cover a diverse array of topics that include: Clinical Ethics, the Profession of Medicine, Organization and Economics of Medicine, Seminars in Medical Ethics and Humanities, Vulnerable Groups, Population Science and Medicine, Vulnerable Groups, College Curriculum Focus, and Patients in Context.  The units described below regularly need tutors to lead small groups. For Physician and Society questions, please contact Jessica Voth (j-voth@northwestern.edu). Sue Anne Tae (s-tae@northwestern.edu) coordinates the M2 Physician and Society classes.

Clinical Ethics (CE)

Tutors meet with one group of 7-9 students for a one-hour discussion of issues related to ethics and human values.  This is coupled with an initial 45-minute session involving the entire college of 44 students, the college mentor, and the tutors. Issues such as confidentiality, truth-telling, informed consent, refusal of treatment, and care of the dying are presented and discussed in a framework that allows exploration of basic approaches to ethics and philosophy (e.g. principle-based ethics, contractual ethics, and casuistry).  An extensive syllabus and guide is provided, along with an orientation session before the start of the course.  Students also write journal entries in response to the readings; faculty read and comment on these journal entries weekly.  Faculty teach one afternoon per week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday) from 1-3:15 from early September to early December.

The unit director is Tod Chambers, PhD.  For further information Dr. Chambers may be reached via e-mail t-chambers@northwestern.edu.

Cultural Dynamics in Medicine (CDM)

CDM examines the intersection between culture and health care delivery. The course is an introduction to fundamental aspects of the relevance of culture on quality health care delivery. The class runs from mid-February to late March.

For further information please contact Ricardo Rosenkranz, MD at r-rosenkranz@northwestern.edu.

The Profession of Medicine (POM)

This unit addresses issues of one's relationship to the profession of medicine, such as health care of the poor, shared risk-taking, medical mistakes, etc. Students meet in groups of 9-11 with their tutor for a one-hour discussion on topics related to ethics and human values, coupled with a one-hour session involving the entire college of 44 students, the college mentor, and the tutors. The class meets seven times with half the class scheduled to complete the unit in the fall, and the other half in the spring; individual faculty are asked to teach for one of these two time periods but are certainly welcome to participate in both. Faculty teach one afternoon per week (Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday), 1:00-3:00.

The unit directors are Katherine Montgomery and Catherine Belling. They can be reached via email at kmontgomery@northwestern.edu, or c-belling@northwestern.edu respectively for further information.

Organization and Economics of Medicine (OEM)

This unit helps students appreciate the history and complexity of the U.S. health care system, develop a framework for assessing current and emerging issues in health care, consider different viewpoints on the social responsibility of physicians, learn about the rapidly changing structure of health care financing, and most important, understand how changes in the health care system will affect their education, their patients, and their careers.

Students meet as a college of 44 students for the first hour of class, during which they learn about a topic (e.g., private health insurance, and public programs) from various angles; small group tutors are required to attend these sessions because they form the basis of the subsequent discussions in small groups. Students then meet in groups of 10-12 with their tutor for a one-hour discussion to delve deeper into particular issues and questions.

The unit director is James Sipkins, MD. He may be reached via e-mail at j-sipkins@northwestern.edu for further information.

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