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Education:
Educational Program
Educational Program Overview
Curriculum summary
The
educational program is composed pre-clinical and clinical segments, each
two-years in duration, and provides opportunities for students to master
the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to become accomplished and
creative physicians with outstanding clinical skills (figure
1). Throughout
the four years is an emphasis on three interrelated themes (figure
2):
a rigorous core scientific and clinical curriculum (the science),
a comprehensive clinical skill-building program (the art) and
opportunities to engage in complex clinical reasoning (medical-decision-making).
Figure 1:
Figure 2:
Preclinical years (1 and 2)
The scientific basis of health and disease is taught in numerous courses
during the first
(figure
3 and (figure
4) and second years (figure
5 and figure
6).
Complementing the core basic
sciences curriculum are opportunities to explore the edge of
science (Research @Yale seminar
series) and master scientific reasoning (journal clubs and graduate courses). The
art of medicine is taught in weekly small group skill-building sessions
and meetings with clinical tutors. There are also several courses that
prepare students for complex medical decision-making. Teaching methods
include lectures, problem-based workshops, small group seminars, labs,
and computer-based activities. Over half of all class time takes place
in small-group activities.
Clinical years (3 and 4)
Students first rotate through
clerkships where they master the core knowledge and basic skills of each
discipline (Internal Medicine, Ambulatory Medicine, Surgery, Anesthesiology,
Pediatrics, Clinical Neuroscience, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Psychiatry,
Primary Care, and Integrative Clinical Medicine) (Figure
7). Medical decision-making
and clinical skills are taught, developed, and assessed by rotating on
hospital ward teams, in private offices, and meeting with senior clinical
faculty preceptors, who mentor, teach, and assess their student charges.
In the fourth year there is ample time for students to participate in electives
and continue their thesis research project. Consistent with the Yale System
is an unusual level of flexibility; students are encouraged to enroll in
any elective of their choice, in any part of the world.
The thesis requirement
Since 1839, Yale MD
students have been required to complete a thesis based on original research.
The thesis program is designed to provide students the opportunity to strengthen
critical thinking skills, develop habits of self-education and the application
of the scientific method to medicine, and to work closely with Yale's distinguished
faculty. Thesis subjects may have origins in basic science or in clinical,
laboratory, or environmental medicine. Stipends are provided for summer
and other short-term research periods, and there are many one-year fellowships
available. Conduct of the research is often initiated during the summer
between the first and second years and continued during free periods in
the third and fourth year.
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