Within the realm of medical education, the acquisition of clinical skills is of paramount importance for the medical student and the future practicing physician. The mission and goals of Medical Education Department Include enhancing students’ learning and assessment. The Clinical Skills Unit strives to achieve this aim by exploring educational aspects of clinical skills acquisition, developing and implementing strategies to enhance the medical students’ learning experience within the skills session, and bridging gaps between instructional methods utilized for skills sessions and student assessment.

The main guiding principles are:

• The clinical skills taught should be relevant to the block and to clinical practice.
• Clinical skills sessions should encompass physical examination skills, communication skills and procedural skills.
• The skills sessions should be structured in a way that enhances student learning.
• The skills sessions should utilize available resources (mannequins, simulations, equipment, etc.) to enhance the learning process.
• Adequate training should be required for faculty in conducting clinical skills sessions or assessments.
• Assessment of clinical skills should be aligned with the content and process of the clinical skills sessions.
• Simulated patients should receive training and should be utilized during skills training and assessment.

Goals                    

The clinical skills unit is committed to promote effective methods of teaching and learning of clinical skills for the undergraduate medical program. Activities will focus on three main areas, the clinical skills sessions, the objective structured clinical exams (OSCE) and simulated patients.

Objectives

• To ensure skills sessions cover relevant subject matter.
• To ensure the use of effective instructional methods for skills sessions.
• To ensure alignment of assessment with skills sessions and objectives.
• To ensure adequate quality of OSCE stations and proper administration of OSCEs for all blocks.
• To create a bank of trained simulated patients.
• To introduce simulated patients to skills sessions.

Strategies

• To develop guidelines for teaching and assessing clinical skills.
• To incorporate faculty and simulated patient training.
• To evaluate student and faculty feedback and address issues of concern.

Activities

• Observing skills sessions and OSCEs.
• Identifying and addressing issues of concern for skills sessions and OSCE.
• Developing guidelines for conducting skills sessions.
• Create policies and procedures for conducting OSCE.
• Create a database for all simulated patients.
• Prepare training manuals for clinical skills instructors and simulated patients.
• Conduct training sessions for simulated patients.
• Coordinate the integration of simulated patients into skills training sessions.