Clinical and Community Experiences
The overall goals of the CCE program are to:
- Provide students with opportunities to shadow and interact with health care and social service providers in various health care and social service settings.
- Enhance medical students’ awareness of the cultural, economic and social issues that affect health care delivery and health behavior.
- Integrate knowledge acquired at a CCE site with that acquired in the other components of the curriculum.
- Reinforce the relevance of the knowledge, skills and attitudes learned in various components of the curriculum.
Health and safety training must be completed to satisfy Occupational Safety and Health Administration and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act requirements. OSHA and HIPAA training will be provided annually for all students via Vector Solutions module (for HIPAA) and via a Blackboard module (for OSHA).
Specific information on immunizations and serologic proof-of-immunity requirements can be found in the Student Survival Manual within the Heritage College website.
Program objectives
CCEs are shadowing experiences where students may meet the following objectives by observation or participation, depending upon the site and preceptor:
- Recognize the methods by which clinical faculty interact with patients and staff.
- Develop interviewing and psychosocial skills essential to the physician-patient relationship, such as:
- Obtaining a history from the patient.
- Interviewing patients regarding the chief complaint.
- Providing appropriate patient education related to each patient.
- Develop basic physical assessment skills, such as:
- Performing assessments of chief complaint.
- Performing any other physical assessment skills with the preceptor, as appropriate for each patient and student.
- Relate the knowledge acquired in this CCE to that acquired from other coursework by:
- Asking the clinical faculty to suggest specific readings on a topic presented during the CCE.
- Reflecting upon the experience.