continuity clinic: educational objectives

Continuity Clinic Educational Objectives

From the first day of internship, house officers assume responsibility for a panel of outpatients. The goals of continuity clinic are to teach interns and residents how to deliver efficient, effective and culturally competent care, paying careful attention to psychosocial issues (including cultural aspects of care, medical interviewing, psychiatric issues in primary care, substance abuse, and domestic violence), health promotion and disease prevention.

From the Residency Curricular Guide (click here for full text and full ambulatory curricular description)

Goals and Objectives

The main goal of the outpatient clinic experience is to teach residents the comprehensive and continuous care of ambulatory patients, focusing on the management of acute and chronic problems in a diverse population. The care of the "whole patient" will be emphasized, paying special attention to concurrent psychosocial issues, including the teaching of cultural awareness, addiction medicine, and domestic violence screening. During the experience, residents will also learn about the practice of evidence-based medicine, enabling them to make rational and cost-effective clinical decisions for their patients. Principles of health promotion and disease prevention and screening will also be a major component of the curriculum.

Objectives

Residents will be able to demonstrate the ability to provide compassionate, efficacious, and efficient, patient care to patients in the ambulatory setting
Residents will demonstrate the ability to care for ambulatory patients with acute and chronic medical conditions
Residents will demonstrate willingness to continuous improve and assess their ambulatory knowledge base and clinical practice

Residents will review the principles of epidemiology, pathophysiology, therapeutics, and prevention in the management a diverse set of illnesses
Residents will demonstrate an understanding of, and a willingness to help improve the various ambulatory resources available to the our patients
Residents be able to appropriately access the services of the multi-disciplinary team members for the care of their patients (social workers, nurses, medical assistants, patient reps, home visit nurses, physical therapist, nutritionist, interpretors…)
Residents will demonstrate experience in retrieving and critically reviewing the medical literature and apply concepts of clinical epidemiology and statistics
Residents will perform office-based procedures (such as joint aspiration and injection) in both the primary and referral setting
Residents will become familiar with the working of an office practice, including scheduling/billing concepts, telephone medicine, preoperative evaluation, consultation and walk-in care
Residents will learn the practice of evidence based medicine enabling the them to make rational clinical decisions, individualized to the needs of their patients

Residents will understand the approach to, and care of the "whole patient". Residents will demonstrate at all times, ethical, humanistic, respectful, empathetic, culturally competent, and professional demeanors in all their interactions with patients, staff, and peers.