Curriculum Overview

1. Knowledge for Practice

Each graduate must demonstrate knowledge of the basic, clinical, and behavioral sciences, and apply this knowledge to patient care. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

1.1. Demonstrate knowledge of the normal structure and function of the human body and each of its major organ systems.

1.2. Demonstrate a foundation of cell and molecular biology for understanding mechanisms of acquired and inherited human disease. 

1.3. Demonstrate knowledge of altered structure and function of major organ systems that are seen in common diseases and conditions.

1.4. Demonstrate knowledge of the clinical, laboratory, and radiologic manifestations of common disease and conditions.  

1.5. Demonstrate knowledge of behavioral, psychosocial, genetic, and cultural factors associated with the origin, progression, and treatment of common diseases and conditions. 

1.6. Demonstrate knowledge of the epidemiology of common diseases and conditions within a defined population and systematic approaches useful in reducing the incidence and prevalence of these maladies.

1.7. Demonstrate knowledge of the impact of cultural and psychosocial factors on a patient’s ability to access medical care and adhere with care plans. 

2. Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Each graduate will communicate and interact effectively with patients, their families and members of the inter-professional healthcare team. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

2.1. Demonstrate empathic and patient-centered interviewing and communication. 

2.2. Demonstrate the ability to obtain an accurate and complete medical history considering the patient’s culture, beliefs, personal preferences and level of health literacy.

2.3. Demonstrate the ability to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, with patients, families and members of the healthcare team/other healthcare professionals.

2.4. Demonstrate the ability to work as a member of a healthcare team, collaborating effectively with other healthcare professionals in caring for patients.

3. Patient Care

Each graduate will function as a member of an inter-professional healthcare team and provide patient care that is compassionate, appropriate and effective for the treatment of health problems and the promotion of health in diverse populations and settings. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

3.1. Elicit in-depth and focused patient-centered histories. 

3.2. Perform accurate complete and focused physical and mental status examinations.

3.3. Integrate patient information with clinical and basic science knowledge. 

3.4. Select appropriate, relevant laboratory, radiologic and other clinical studies and interpret the results of such studies.

3.5. Develop a differential diagnosis. 

3.6. Formulate a plan for the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of common clinical problems.

3.7. Recognize patients with life-threatening, emergency conditions and institute appropriate initial therapy.

3.8. Identify opportunities for early intervention, prevention and health education of patients while being mindful of the patient’s readiness and barriers to change.

3.9. Demonstrate technical competence of routine medical procedures. 

3.10. Recommend appropriate referral of patients including ensuring continuity of care throughout transitions between providers or settings, and following up on patient progress and outcomes. 

3.11. Synthesize and communicate patient information to other health professionals to accomplish safe care transitions and promote effective teamwork. 

4. Professionalism

Our students are expected to demonstrate a commitment to  upholding their professional duties guided by ethical principles. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

4.1. Demonstrate respect for patients by using the appropriate form of address, attending to a patient’s comfort, displaying appropriate attire and grooming, and honoring a patient’s privacy and right to make decisions.

4.2. Demonstrate responsibility in actions by being punctual, managing emotions when confronted with adversity and confrontation, and recognizing personal and peer impairments. 

4.3. Demonstrate honor and integrity by being honest about role and experience level, admitting mistakes and shortcomings, appropriately attributing sources of ideas and data, and respecting boundaries between patients, peers, and educators. 

4.4. Demonstrate reverence for human life, understanding that sympathy for suffering is a fundamental concern of the medical profession and that the needs of the patient are paramount and should govern a physician’s actions.

4.5. Demonstrate compassion by recognizing and responding with empathy to others’ emotions and expectations, regardless of regardless of gender, race, sexual orientation, culture, socioeconomic status, religion, political affiliation, medical diagnosis, level of adherence, or health literacy/education level. 

4.6. Demonstrate a dedication to teamwork, and an understanding of and respect for the unique roles of all members of the healthcare team.

4.7. Demonstrate knowledge of the principles that govern ethical decision-making and rules and regulations regarding healthcare delivery, incorporating them into clinical practice and research. 

5. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

Each graduate must demonstrate the ability to investigate and evaluate their care of patients, to appraise and assimilate scientific evidence, and to continuously improve patient care based on constant self-evaluation and life-long learning. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

5.1. Demonstrate the ability to recognize strengths, deficiencies and limitations in their knowledge and skills.

5.2. Demonstrate the ability to set learning and improvement goals.

5.3. Demonstrate the ability to identify and perform learning activities that address gaps in their knowledge, skills and/or attitudes.

5.4. Demonstrate the use of information technology to optimize learning.

5.5. Demonstrate a commitment to continuously improve their medical knowledge, skills and/or attitudes by incorporating formative evaluation and feedback into daily practice.

5.6. Participate in the education of patients, families, trainees, peers and other health professionals.

5.7. Demonstrate the ability to obtain and utilize information about individual patients, populations of patients or communities of patients to improve care.

5.8. Demonstrate life-long learning skills by continually identifying, analyzing and implementing new knowledge, guidelines, standards, technologies, products or services that have been demonstrated to improve outcomes.

6. Systems-Based Practice

Each graduate will demonstrate awareness and understanding of the broader health care delivery system and will possess the ability to effectively use system resources to provide patient-centered care that is compassionate, appropriate, safe and effective. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

6.1. Advocate for quality patient care and optimal care systems. 

6.2. Demonstrate a commitment to balancing risks of harm vs. benefit in patient and/or population-based care as well as exercising cost-awareness. 

6.3. Use system resources available to patients, families and communities for health promotion and maintenance, disease prevention, education, treatment, and rehabilitation of medical and psychiatric conditions.

6.4. Identify system errors and common sources of medical error and recommend potential systems solutions. 

7. Interprofessional Collaborative Practice

Each graduate will demonstrate the skills to participate as a contributing and integrated member of an interprofessional healthcare team to provide safe and effective care for patients and populations. By the time of graduation, students are expected to:

7.1. Identify one’s own role and the roles of other team members, including limitations and boundaries of each role to optimize healthcare delivery and effective healthcare team functioning.

7.2. Work with other health professionals to cultivate and preserve a climate of mutual trust, respect, dignity, diversity, integrity, and ethicality.

7.3. Communicate with respect for and appreciation of all healthcare team members and include them in all relevant information exchange.

7.4. Participate as a high-functioning team member by contributing one’s skills set, supporting other team members as needed and ensuring the functioning of the healthcare team remains optimal (i.e. safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable) for patient and population-centered care.


8. Personal and Professional Development

Each graduate will demonstrate the qualities and commitment required to sustain lifelong learning, personal and professional growth. By the time of graduation, students are expected to: 

8.1. Demonstrate self-awareness in identifying limitations (in knowledge, skill, emotion, etc.) and the ability to seek help appropriately and engage in healthy coping mechanisms. 

8.2. Develop skills for ongoing improvement as a healthcare provider through self-reflection, critical self-appraisal, and openness to accepting feedback. 

8.3. Understand that situations involving ambiguity and uncertainty are natural elements of the medical profession and respond to such situations by drawing upon appropriate resources. 

Our courses provide the foundations of our medical student education. Courses include:

Integrated Ultrasound Curriculum: Ultrasound is a fundamental part of modern medical practice. During the Foundations Phase of the curriculum, the Integrated Ultrasound courses serve to reinforce key concepts in anatomy and physiology. During the Clinical Immersion Phase, students build procedural competency with required ultrasound training in the clerkships. Students in the Career Exploration Phase have the opportunity for a month-long elective in point-of-care ultrasound.

Population Health and Epidemiology: The Population Health & Epidemiology course gives students an understanding of basic principles of epidemiology, public health, and biostatistics. The course teaches skills needed for accurate interpretation of the medical literature and a career of lifelong learning.

Medicine and Patients in Society: This course sequence is a broad and basic overview seminar, designed to prepare students for the integration of behavioral, social and ethical considerations into MS1&2 core learning about patient care and the role of health care in society. It covers core medical education content in ethics and professionalism, behavior, the medical social sciences, and the medical humanities, and is structured for optimal teaching of these key concepts and skills in the preclinical years.

Clinical Skills Foundations: The Clinical Skills Foundations (CS1) course is the first year component of students’ longitudinal clinical skills curriculum. The overall objective of CS1 is to teach students how to perform fundamental clinical skills including doctor-patient relationship building and communication (DPR) skills, introductory history taking skills, introductory physical examination (PE) skills, and clinical documentation skills, with an emphasis on patient-centered care, professionalism, and professional identity development.

Applied Clinical Skills: The Applied Clinical Skills (CS2) course is the second year component of students’ longitudinal clinical skills curriculum. The overall objective of CS2 is to build upon the foundational clinical skills learned in Year 1 of the curriculum (CS1) and to prepare students for their upcoming clinical rotations in Year 3. As in Year 1, students will continue to practice and build their fundamental clinical skills including doctor-patient relationship building and communication (DPR) skills, history taking skills, physical examination (PE) skills, and clinical documentation skills, with an ongoing emphasis on patient-centered care, professionalism, and professional identity development.

Basic Clinical Procedures: Basic Clinical Procedures is the first of two required courses that comprise the Wake Forest Procedures Curriculum. In this course, students are introduced to basic clinical procedures and given the opportunity to learn about each procedure via multi-media online educational modules. Students then observe and participate in these procedures as part of their clinical experiences.

Introduction to Clinical Reasoning and Integrative Thinking (iCRIT): The Introduction to Clinical Reasoning and Integrative Thinking (iCRIT) course is a foundational course in the preclinical curriculum that introduces students to the fundamentals of clinical reasoning and medical decision making using a small group, interactive model based upon interactions with “virtual patients.” This course teaches students how to formulate a differential diagnosis using an hypothesis-driven approach to data-gathering based upon a patient’s complaints and physical examination in the context of their overall health and concurrent medical problems.  There is directive instruction and modeling of both Type 1 (intuitive, pattern recognition problem-solving) decision making and Type 2 (a more analytical, deductive, pathophysiological approach to problem-solving) decision making in the context of the virtual patient. Students will be taught and must apply an integrative approach to problem solving. This is accomplished through the use of the virtual patients as well as reinforced by integration within the course of vignette-based multiple choice questions modelled after NBME type questions.  A structured approach to analyzing vignette-based questions is used as a natural complement to teach the process of integrative thinking which is the cornerstone of a physician’s diagnostic approach to patients. As the course progresses through the curriculum the students will learn basics of medical decision-making and demonstrate those skills in the context of the patients and through use of objective assessment tools of vignette-based questions.

Advanced Clinical Procedures: Advanced Clinical Procedures is the second of two required courses that comprise the Wake Forest Procedures Curriculum. In this course, students are introduced to advanced clinical procedures and given the opportunity to learn about each procedure via multi-media online educational modules. Students then observe and participate in these procedures as part of their clinical experiences.

Read a complete description of all courses in the school of medicine student handbook (PDF).

During the career exploration phase of the curriculum, students can select from several dozen electives. The most popular ones include:

• Diagnostic Radiology
• Anatomic and Clinical Pathology
• Neuroradiology
• Clinical Dermatology
• Global Health Care
• Genetics
• Nephrology
• Pediatric Infectious Diseases
• Infectious Diseases
• Family Medicine

The affiliation agreement is the controlling factor for participation in the visiting medical student program. Wake Forest University School of Medicine requires an approved affiliation agreement with the host institution to allow for participation in the visiting medical student program. Please send an email to the Office of Student Records at StudentRecords@wakehealth.edu with the institution name, contact person and address of the institution you plan to visit so the process to obtain an approved affiliation agreement with that institution can begin as early as possible. Approved affiliation agreements must be on file with the Office of Student Records no later than 15 days before the away elective start date, otherwise, the student will not be allowed to participate in the away elective.

List of Approved Affiliation Agreements

GENERAL STEPS:

1. Check VSLO first- if the school is using VSLO, follow those instructions. For those programs that do not utilize VSLO, contact them or download their visiting student application form from their web site.
2. Student Records will upload to VSLO, proof of liability insurance a transcript or any supplemental documents when requested by the institution where you are applying.
3. Students can obtain completed immunization records from Employee Health. Students must upload their immunization forms. Student Records does not have access to upload documents to this section of the VSLO application.
4. Students will be responsible for uploading their own test reports of USMLE Step Scores into VSLO. The Office of Student Records cannot release your actual scores. If you do not have a copy of your Step Scores, please visit the National Board of Medical Examiners for instructions to obtain your USMLE Step 1, Step 2 CK & CS.
5. Updated Criminal Background Checks (CBC) are available on a case-by-case basis at the student’s expense. If an updated CBC is required, bring a check in the amount of $100, payable to WFSM, to the Office of Student Records for entry in the Certiphi Screening database.
6. Updated Drug Screens are available on a case-by-case basis at the student’s expense. For an updated Drug Screen, the student should contact Employee Health.
7. Titers are available at the student’s expense. Contact your health insurance provider to see if this cost is covered if obtained through your Primary Care Physician (PCP).
8. Upon approval from the Year 4 Administration Team and offer of acceptance from elective, the office of Student Records will give students permission to register for the away elective.

Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) is an AAMC application designed to streamline the application process for senior "away" electives at other LCME medical schools in the United States. This service requires students to submit one application for all schools, effectively reducing paperwork, minimizing miscommunication, and making better use of time. VSLO also provides a centralized location for managing offers and tracking decisions. To see when schools begin accepting applications for the current academic year, go to their website and click on the Institutions tab. You will then see the list of participating institutions, the dates they begin accepting applications, fees, and any required documentation. Each program is different, so please read their instructions carefully.

The majority of medical schools utilize VSLO to process elective requests. The remainder continue to use their own paper-based application system. If you are not applying to a school on VSLO, please use the AAMC Extramural Electives Compendium (EEC) for visiting student application information. The AAMC web site connects you to the LCME-accredited medical schools and has the URLs for their web sites.

Students registered for an away rotation must arrange to have an evaluation of performance prepared on the Wake Forest University School of Medicine Year 4 Student Evaluation form. The school of medicine Y4 Student Clinical Evaluation form is available on the Year 4 Canvas page.

It is the student’s responsibility to request that an evaluation be sent to the Office of Student Records. The student should provide a copy of the form to the host evaluator.

It is the student’s responsibility to check with the Office of Student Records to be sure that the evaluation form has been received. The student must continue follow-up action on the evaluation until it is received.