{"id":51897,"date":"2011-12-08T12:05:55","date_gmt":"2011-12-08T17:05:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=51897"},"modified":"2011-12-12T10:18:12","modified_gmt":"2011-12-12T15:18:12","slug":"school-of-medicine-students-exceptional-in-clinical-skills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2011\/12\/school-of-medicine-students-exceptional-in-clinical-skills\/","title":{"rendered":"School of Medicine Students Exceptional in Clinical Skills"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Dr.<\/a>
Dr. Lynn Kosowicz, medical director of the Clinical Skills Assessment Program, oversees medical students as they work on a "SimMan" high-tech mannequin in the simulation center. (UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Communicating effectively with patients is an important requirement for being a successful doctor and UConn medical students have shown they\u2019re ahead of their peers in this skill set.<\/p>\n

Results from the Clinical Skills board exams<\/a> show that UConn medical students aced the test, with 100 percent passing with scores well above the mean in all areas. The students are judged on such parameters as their questioning skills, information-sharing skills, and their professional manner and rapport. Medical students take the clinical skills part of the boards during the first half of their fourth year.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe prepare them by having them work in the clinical skills facility from the first month of medical school, and by having them see patients in physicians\u2019 offices from their first semester on,\u201d says Carol Pfeiffer, who helped develop UConn\u2019s Clinical Skills Assessment Program more than 20 years ago. \u201cThere are\u00a0several practice programs during the first two years, and a formal assessment during each of the four years. By identifying and helping students who have difficulty with clinical skills, we end up with above average performers.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Clinical Skills Assessment Program allows students to learn how to communicate with patients in situations that don\u2019t require the use of actual patients. The Clinical Skills Laboratory is composed of 16 patient exam rooms fully equipped to simulate a true medical office experience.<\/p>\n

The laboratory employs a number of fully-trained actors throughout the year. Students interact with these \u201cpatient instructors\u201d as if it were a real interaction. After each encounter, students meet with the patient instructor and receive feedback on whether or not they asked the correct questions, performed the correct physical exam maneuvers, and how well they did on an interpersonal level.<\/p>\n

Each patient room has a video camera and microphone, allowing for patient encounters to be uploaded to the Internet. This technology allows students to review their encounters, in order to evaluate themselves and improve their techniques.<\/p>\n

The Clinical Skills Laboratory is also equipped with a simulation center. This center uses a “SimMan” high-tech mannequin to instruct students on diagnostic and management skills in a controlled setting. As a result, students gain the confidence to deal with life-threatening, high pressure situations before facing them in a real-life clinical setting.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe really are proud of our program and even more proud of our students,\u201d says Dr. Lynn Kosowicz<\/a>, the program\u2019s medical director. \u201cFuture patients will surely benefit from the many opportunities for practice and feedback that our Clinical Skills program provides for our learners.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

Follow\u00a0the UConn Health Center<\/a> on\u00a0Facebook<\/a>,\u00a0Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0YouTube<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Results from the Clinical Skills board exams show 100 percent of UConn students passed the test with scores well above the average. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":51951,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[179,1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-51897","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uconn-health","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 01:00:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51897","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=51897"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51897\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52072,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/51897\/revisions\/52072"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/51951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=51897"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=51897"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=51897"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=51897"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=51897"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}