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The David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA expects all of its students to demonstrate the following competencies prior to graduating with the M.D. degree. These objectives are not intended to supersede the objectives that are specific to individual courses.
- Conduct patient-centered encounters that balance the needs of the patient with time constraints
of practice. Such encounters include:
- ascertaining the patient's goals for the encounter,
- appreciating the patient's experience of illness,
- performing a focused physical examination, and
- negotiating diagnostic and management priorities.
- Accurately perform and document both complete and focused histories and physical examinations that
are based on the pathophysiology of presenting complaints, and that address relevant psychosocial and family issues.
- Prioritize patients' problems, formulate appropriate differential diagnoses, and develop appropriate plans
for diagnosis and/or management.
- Perform the following basic diagnostic and therapeutic procedures:
- Basic first aid
- Basic Life Support (BLS Certification)
- Suturing simple lacerations
- Drawing venous blood
- Starting an IV
- Basic airway management
- Be familiar with the technique for a normal vaginal delivery.
- 6. Be able to discuss the principles of and the relative advantages and disadvantages of various therapeutic
modalities, including surgery, pharmacology, physical rehabilitation, mental health care, behavioral modification
and complementary and alternative medicine, as applied to common clinical situations.
- Use epidemiological principles and data to formulate measures for the care of individuals and communities
and be able to read the medical literature.
- Evaluate the roles that unemployment, poverty, and lack of education play as obstacles to quality health care.
- Develop and implement individualized risk reduction plans based on a culturally-sensitive assessment of important
medical and social conditions including sexually transmitted diseases, substance abuse, and interpersonal violence.
- Know the scientific principles that underlie current understanding of normal human development, function,
and disease. Be able to accurately express and use these principles in discussing health maintenance, common
disease processes, and disease evaluation and management.
- Demonstrate an understanding of social and behavioral factors that influence patients' responses to
health and disease. Such factors include:
- specific cultural, ethnic and societal beliefs and behaviors,
- patients' age, education, finances, and family resources,
- alternative or complementary medical practices within patients' communities.
- Understand the scientific basis and interpretation of common diagnostic modalities, including: imaging,
electrocardiograms, blood and urine chemistries, pathologic studies, and functional assessment tests. Discuss
the indications, contraindications and cost-effectiveness of common diagnostic studies.
- Demonstrate knowledge of common problems and diseases for diverse populations:
- Presenting complaints
- Abdominal pain
- Anxiety
- Change in mental status
- Chest pain
- Chronic pain
- Cough
- Diarrhea
- Headache
- Obesity
- Trauma
- Heartburn
- Low back pain
- Shortness of breath
- Substance abuse
- Pharyngitis
- Diseases
- Alcoholism
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Cancer
- Dementia
- Depression
- Diabetes
- Osteoporosis
- HIV
- Hypertension
- Hyperlipidemia
- Otitis Media
- Pneumonia
- Psychosis
- TB
- UTI
- Upper respiratory infection
- Vaginitis
- Conditions
- Pregnancy
- Menopause
- Domestic violence
- End-of-life issues
- Understand basic issues for promoting health and preventing disease, including nutrition, exercise,
psychological health, preventive pharmacology, genetic predisposition to disease, sanitation, environmental
and workplace hazards, life-styles, immunizations, and apply this understanding to patient management.
- Assess the health status, demographics and socioeconomic characteristics of medically underserved populations.
- Recognize differences in belief systems, values, languages, religions, and health practices that impact the
medical care of culturally diverse medically underserved populations.
- Know when and how to report incidents of domestic violence including: child, elder, and spousal abuse.
- Understand importance of life-long learning to adequately care for patients, to participate in patient
education, and to pursue creative scholarly endeavors
- Use computer-based techniques, including PubMed and other relevant databases, to acquire new information
and resources for learning.
- Identify and use reliable, authoritative sources of medical information.
- Organize personal resources efficiently and systematically using electronic tools and other methods.
- Describe and assess common scientific methodologies used in clinically-relevant medical research.
- Identify the evidential value, organization and logistics of various types of clinical trials, and be
able to advise patients concerning their participation in or interpretation of these.
- Read, summarize and critique research and disease review articles in peer-reviewed journals such as New
England Journal of Medicine.
- Use evidence-based approaches as tools to decide whether to accept new findings, therapies and technologies
for incorporation into medical practice.
- Utilize decision-support systems and guidelines for clinical decision making, including an understanding of
the roles of preferences and probabilities.
- Understand and use continuous quality improvement practices
- Translate questions that arise from daily clinical practice into formal research hypotheses.
- Utilize computer technology to aid in the design, writing, analysis, and presentation of data from a
clinical research project (this competency is currently unique to the Drew program).
- Design, implement, and complete a clinical research project that will meet the criteria for a Thesis
(this competency is currently unique to the Drew program).
- Demonstrate interpersonal skills that build rapport and empathic communication with patients and their families across socioeconomic, racial, and cultural boundaries.
- Make both complete and focused case presentations that are accurate and well-organized; prepare and maintain complete, accurate, well-organized medical records
- Demonstrate a commitment to and skill in teaching medical students, colleagues, and other members of the allied health profession using the concepts and vocabulary of contemporary basic and clinical science.
- Function as a productive member of a team.
- Work collaboratively with health professionals from other disciplines.
- Skillfully address sensitive issues in an effective, compassionate, non-judgmental manner. Such issues include
- screening for alcohol and drug abuse, domestic violence, and sexual activities,
- screening for cancer risks
- giving "bad news".
- Describe and use sound principles for changing patients' behavior in order to promote and improve their health.
- Inform patients and their families about health and illness in a way that is culturally-sensitive, jargon-free and appropriate to their needs, including counseling on prevention and psychosocial issues.
- Obtain informed consent from patients by clearly explaining the risks, benefits, and alternatives for common medical and surgical procedures in a culturally sensitive manner.
- Demonstrate reliability, dependability, and integrity in interactions with colleagues and patients.
- Deal with professional mistakes openly and honestly in ways that promote patient trust and self-learning.
- Accurately assess one's personal strengths and limitations, relevant to one's practice of medicine and continued learning.
- Develop abilities to receive and provide constructive feedback as part of peer and self-assessment of professional behaviors.
- Understand appropriate coping mechanisms for dealing with stress, intellectual uncertainty, interpersonal conflict, and issues related to power.
- Use basic ethical concepts and approaches to identify and analyze the ethical dimensions of common situations in medical practice, health policy, and research.
- Understand the obligation to treat the individual patient, and discuss the conflicts between caring for a patient and caring for a population.
- Recognize an obligation to the health of society, locally, regionally, and nationally
- Demonstrate the ability to provide leadership to groups of colleagues or patients.
- Function under common time constraints in outpatient primary care settings, including managed care groups and underserved populations.
- Discuss changing social, economic, and political factors that are affecting the patterns of health care delivery in the United States, and specifically in Southern California.
- Know the structure and function of health care delivery and insurance systems currently used in the United States.
- Understand how payment systems for medical care affect decision making and care provision, and discuss strategies for delivering quality care in the face of reimbursement restrictions.
- Apply cost-effectiveness analysis to specific instances of diagnosis and treatment of disease and of health promotion.
- Understand the principles of medical record keeping and the use of electronic records.
- Know how and when to use consultants.
- Identify and use resources and ancillary health care services for patients in situations in which social and economic barriers to access exist.
Based on:
UCLA's mission statement for undergraduate medical education, initially approved 1992, revised 1996.
Two statements of educational objectives, for UCLA and Drew respectively, each approved 1997.
The current document revises, combines and reorganizes these objectives. Approved June, 2004. |
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