■ To provide care that incorporates your patient's body, mind, and spirit, take time to learn the patient's story so that you can understand the reality in which the patient lives and how his or her circumstances may have contributed to their current condition. This understanding includes taking a thorough social history that incorporates questions that address your patient's social determinants of health, such as “Have you been without a home at any time in the past year?” “Can you safely walk in your neighborhood?” and “How do you get your medications?” Only then will you be able to work with that patient to create a successful plan of care for addressing his or her chief complaint. (EPA 1)

■ Take ownership of obtaining and refining your clinical reasoning skills beginning on your first day of medical school. For each simulated or real patient you encounter, incorporate your knowledge of osteopathic principles and basic science concepts with the patient's social and medical history and physical examination findings, along with laboratory and diagnostic test results, to determine the cause of each symptom. (EPA 2, 3, and 7)

■ From the first week of medical school, ask your physician teachers to describe their clinical reasoning processes to you when working through a patient presentation to formulate a differential diagnosis. Ask your DO teachers how osteopathic principles and practice are incorporated into their processes. Remember that your training as a student becoming a physician is an apprenticeship model. Learn as much as possible from each physician's process. (EPA 2)

■ When on clinical rotations, take the initiative to ask your physician teachers, residents, and interns if you can orally present patients to them. Be concise and efficient in your oral presentations. Ensure that pertinent aspects of your patient's story are included to demonstrate that you are incorporating the whole person into your clinical reasoning process, not solely the clinical condition. When presenting physical examination findings, especially highlight osteopathic findings that demonstrate the relationship between structure and function when there is clearly a malalignment of the 2 that is relevant to the patient's clinical condition. Also, ask these mentors to review your notes on the patient's history, physical examination findings, SOAP (subjective, objective, assessment, plan) note forms, and progress notes with you. Ask your DO teachers to provide feedback on your documentation of osteopathic structural examinations and osteopathic manipulative medicine procedural notes. Push yourself to write notes on your patients, even if it has not been asked of you. The consistent practice of writing notes on and orally presenting findings will continually hone your clinical reasoning skills.⁶ (EPA 2, 5, and 6)

■ Know your osteopathic physical examination techniques, especially for musculoskeletal examinations. These examinations are the bread and butter of the osteopathic medical profession. Your non-DO teachers, residents, and interns can look to you for expertise in the diagnostic evaluation of the spine, as well as the upper and lower extremities. They may ask your advice on the performance and results of shoulder and knee examinations. You will have expertise in these areas well before the end of your second year of medical school. Be confident and show off your skills. (EPA 1, 2, and 12)

■ Be an ambassador of the osteopathic medical profession. Be empowered to offer to perform an osteopathic manipulative treatment (OMT) to your physician teachers when you feel it can help a patient. As an osteopathic medical student, you bring added value to every patient encounter when taking the initiative in offering to demonstrate how OMT may help in the care of a patient. The AACOM website houses rich resources⁷ that COMs use as faculty development guides to enable allopathic physician teachers of osteopathic medical students to supervise the performance of basic OMT procedures. Refer your preceptors to these resources if they are unfamiliar with OMT procedures. (EPA 12)

■ Remember that OMT is, as Andrew Taylor Still, MD, DO, wrote, the extension of “the touch of the soft hand of kindness”^8(p459) to those in need. A simple occiptioatlantal decompression or thoracolumbar kneading and stretching may ease a patient's body, mind, and spirit. (EPA 12)

■ Keep in mind that you are continuously being evaluated during clinical rotations. Draw on your strengths as an osteopathic medical student to consistently demonstrate the utmost professionalism⁹ and collegiality when interacting and collaborating with members of the health care team, including front office and ancillary staff. In 2016, 70% of residency program directors from all specialties cited “Evidence of Professionalism and Ethics” as an important factor in selecting applicants to interview.¹⁰ (EPA 9)