Class of 2010 Pioneers New Two-Year Course

Over the summer, the Class of 2010 was launched into Patient-Centered Medicine (PCM), a new two-year course. The incoming students completed their first assignment, immersing themselves in recommended reading or film-watching. In addition, they wrote and posted the first round of required journal entries.

They began Orientation well prepared to develop the skills and mind-set that are the focus of PCM. “The new course helps advance our goal of training culturally competent physicians,” says Carol A. Terregino, MD ’86, associate professor of medicine and associate dean for admissions. “From the start, they will learn to work
collaboratively with their patients and will be prepared to do so throughout the life cycle.” Dr. Terregino serves as course co-director with Norma B. Saks, EdD, associate professor of psychiatry and assistant dean for educational programs.

Designed by an interdisciplinary faculty committee, the course incorporates a wide range of issues related to patient-centered care. In addition to covering the material previously taught in physical diagnosis, the new course addresses humanistic, legal, and ethical concerns. “We will use multiple modalities and scenarios,” says Dr. Terregino, explaining that the course will meet in a large-group conferences and in Objective Structured Clinical Exercises (OSCEs) with standardized patients. The class also will meet in small groups that will be longitudinally monitored and evaluated by the same physician faculty member. Students will regularly don their white coats and observe the physician-patient relationship in clinical and private-practice settings.

To build a foundation of cultural and professional competency, students will be assigned to community sites and will work with end-of-life treatment settings and people with disabilities. They will learn how patients access social services, and all students will have a service learning activity.

“We hope not only to train a more competent group of MDs,” says Dr. Terregino. “We expect also to better prepare our medical students for their third and fourth years, where they will bring more to the team of residents and fellows in clinical rotations.”

White Coat Ceremony
Welcomes Students
into Medical Community

During the White Coat Ceremony, students are transformed into a unified, white-coated cadre of future physicians. The ceremony marks the end of Orientation and is the first RWJMS event celebrated by incoming classes.

This year, Peter S. Amenta, MD, PhD, interim dean, introduced special guests and welcomed students, their families, and friends. He underscored the sanctity of the social contract between doctor and patient and emphasized the medical school’s focus on humanism.

The keynote speaker was Jeffrey P. Levine, MD, MPH, associate professor of family medicine and associate professor of obstetrics, gynecology, and reproductive sciences.

The White Coat Ceremony, an initiative of The Arnold P. Gold Foundation for Human-
ism in Medicine, was initiated at RWJMS in 1994. It has succeeded and evolved under the leadership of Susan Rosenthal, MMS ’75, MD, clinical associate professor of pediatrics and assistant dean for student affairs.

Erin Edwards ’09 was student coordinator for the event.

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