{"id":80932,"date":"2013-07-22T09:21:43","date_gmt":"2013-07-22T13:21:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=80932"},"modified":"2013-07-22T11:52:54","modified_gmt":"2013-07-22T15:52:54","slug":"student-continuity-practice-enriches-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2013\/07\/student-continuity-practice-enriches-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Student Continuity Practice Enriches Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Student<\/a>
Student Continuity Practice Medical student, Yvonne Chu, and Dr. Joseph Barbiarz (Lanny Nagler for UConn Health Center)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

More than 2,000 years ago, Greek philosopher Aristotle observed, \u201cFor the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.\u201d This might be the motto of the UConn School of Medicine\u2019s nationally respected Student Continuity Practice<\/a>. SCP has students working side-by-side with community-based primary care physicians during the first three\u2014and sometimes four\u2014years of medical school. This spring, another class of students and their physician preceptors marked the completion of their participation in the SCP with a celebratory dinner at the Health Center in Farmington.<\/p>\n

One of the students who spoke at the event was Raymond Lorenzoni, who studied with Dr. Nima Patel, a pediatrician in West Hartford.\u00a0 Lorenzoni noted that the SCP enables students to place hands on patients every week very early in their training. \u201cAs we are learning how illnesses affect their bodies in class, we are learning how illnesses affect their lives,\u201d Lorenzoni said. \u201cSCP allows us to translate the cold, abstract descriptions in our textbooks into patients who are more memorably palpable.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI have thoroughly enjoyed my SCP experience and believe it has helped make me a better clinician,\u201d Lorenzoni went on to say.<\/p>\n

And that, after all, is the overarching goal of this unique program.<\/p>\n

A model program<\/h2>\n

UConn\u2019s SCP was one of the first three-year programs in the country when it was launched in 1995. Since then, it has become a model for institutions nationwide. The program is highly structured and fully integrated into the overall curriculum. Students spend a half-day each week in their assigned practices. The initial focus is on taking histories, doing physical examinations, promoting health and advising patients on behavioral modification techniques. As they progress, students work with preceptors to understand the clinical correlations involved in certain diseases and learn about differential diagnosis and problem lists. By the third-year clinical rotation, students often have their own panel of patients\u2014many of whom they\u2019ve built relationships with over time.<\/p>\n

\"coons_barbara_brierley_tamika\"<\/a>
UConn medical student Barbara Coons (right) and her preceptor, Dr. Tamika Brierley, a pediatrician and UConn graduate who also did SCP. (School of Medicine\/UConn Health Center Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Student John Mahler just completed his third year working with Dr. Jeffrey Goldberg of Family Medical Group in Bristol. Mahler says the experience has given him exposure to a wide variety of patients and conditions. \u201cWe see everything,\u201d he says, \u201cincluding musculoskeletal complaints, basic medicine, diabetes, hypertension, infection, pneumonia.\u201d Mahler, who is considering specializing in psychiatry, has gained experience in that area, too. \u201cThere are quite a few patients with depression or anxiety, for example, even at a family medicine site. At least once a week I speak with a patient with psychiatric issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opportunity to work with seasoned physicians is invaluable. Mahler says that observing Dr. Goldberg\u2019s manner and the way he practices medicine has given him \u201ca lot of good habits I\u2019ll take with me\u201d into practice.<\/p>\n

Student Lauren Grandpre agrees. Grandpre worked with internal medicine specialist Dr. Catherine Holmes of Grove Hill Medical Center in Southington. \u201cPerhaps my favorite part of the SCP experience is watching Dr. Holmes in action,\u201d Grandpre says. \u201cIt is a pleasure to observe how consistently thorough and compassionate she is with each and every patient interaction.\u201d Grandpre says she hopes to emulate her mentor as she goes on to become a physician.<\/p>\n

In addition to helping them develop their clinical skills, the SCP give students insights into the realities of operating a medical practice and the personal and professional challenges physicians face. \u201cI was surprised at how busy the clinics are,\u201d John Mahler says. \u201cDr. Goldberg sees quite a few patients in an afternoon. And I was surprised by the variety of concerns patients come in with.\u201d<\/p>\n

Preceptor perspective<\/h2>\n

Many of the physicians who participate in the SCP have done so multiple times. Dr. Minh Han of ProHealth Physicians in Manchester has been a preceptor since 2002. He says that having students in his practice allows him to \u201cgive back\u201d to those who mentored him early in his training and helps him stay abreast of new developments in medicine.<\/p>\n

Early in their program, students require a significant investment of time and energy by their preceptors, Dr. Han says. But that investment generates short-term benefits: as students gain more clinical experience they can actually help with patient flow. \u201cIn the long term, I hope they\u2019ll become better physicians\u2014more knowledgeable, more experienced,\u201d Dr. Han says. Since today\u2019s students are tomorrow\u2019s physicians, he notes, \u201cI see it as an investment, not just in my own office, but for society as a whole. I think it\u2019s well worth it.\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":"

Another class of UConn medical students celebrates the completion of the program with their preceptors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":80940,"comment_status":"closed","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-80932","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 17:55:27","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\/80932","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=80932"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80932\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":80949,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80932\/revisions\/80949"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/80940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80932"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80932"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80932"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=80932"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=80932"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}