Efforts are underway to implement “The Complete DOctor” in the third and fourth years of medical school. However, the course faces obstacles related to KCOM/ATSU's decentralized clinical training regions. Students spend the first and second years on the KCOM/ATSU campus, but the third and fourth years are spent in clinical training in a number of geographic regions across the country. Another challenge is in the number of faculty members needed to cover curriculum throughout all regions.
Efforts to expand “The Complete DOctor” into the third and fourth years have included purchasing a cadre of virtual case modules. The faculty members from the Department of Family Medicine, Preventive Medicine, and Community Health have developed the clinical objectives and have written the postrotation examinations given at the end of each core site rotation. In addition, elective courses, such as medical Spanish, have been developed. Web-based, computer-interactive, and classroom-based electives are being planned for content related to evidence-based medicine, geriatric medicine, humanism in medicine, literature and medicine, professionalism, and religion/spirituality in medicine. Web-based cases will also be developed on topics such as oral health, patient safety, and quality improvement.
Preceptors will evaluate students in the third and fourth years on clinical performance, and additional evaluation will include analysis of student logs, case presentations, core knowledge–based examinations, end-of-core OSCEs, clinical practice examinations with standardized patients, and a Promotion Board review. In turn, the students will evaluate preceptors and rotation sites.