Curriculum Overview: Educational Mission, Key Features & Phases
The educational mission of UC Davis School of Medicine is to train competent and compassionate physicians who will address the health care needs of individuals, families, and communities through collaborative approaches to patient-centered care. The curriculum for the M.D. degree is a four-year program that provides comprehensive preparation for graduate medical training in any specialty.
Key Features:
Competency-based
- Instructional framework and assessment methods are linked with graduation competencies, educational program objectives, and course objectives
Graduation Competencies and Educational Program Objectives
Integrative
- An integrative block curriculum weaves content in the basic sciences and clinical medicine around multi-disciplinary themes and common clinical presentations
- The longitudinal doctoring curriculum promotes stage-appropriate development of clinical and professional skills while integrating core principles of patient-centered care, behavioral medicine, population medicine, ethics, and socio-economics
Innovative
- Excellent basic science and clinical faculty are dedicated to student-centered teaching
- Rich mixture of stimulating teaching methods and technologies promote learning through discovery and collaboration
- Emphasis on self-directed and interactive small-group learning, frequent formative feedback, and self assessment
- Standardized patients and simulation technologies used extensively for learning and assessment
Flexible
- Opportunities for career exploration, research, and community service
- Elective credit offered for participation in student-run, community clinics
The curriculum for the M.D. degree provides flexibility for and encourages coordination with other advanced degree programs (M.D./Ph.D., M.S., M.A., M.B.A., and M.P.H.).
Phases of the Curriculum:
First and Second Year Curriculum
The pre-clerkship curriculum is organized in blocks to promote integration of basic sciences and clinical medicine. Four blocks of foundational science and pathophysiology courses are grouped by complementary objectives, disciplines, and themes. The longitudinal Doctoring curriculum focuses on clinical skills, clinical reasoning, and social-behavioral medicine and the course is woven throughout the first two years and integrated with concurrent courses. The longitudinal pathology and pharmacology curricula are similarly integrated with concurrent courses, beginning with the second block.
The third year begins with a one week “Transition to Clerkships” course, followed by required clerkships in Surgery, Internal Medicine, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Family Medicine, and longitudinal clinical experience in Primary Care. A four-week elective block is also included. The longitudinal Doctoring curriculum runs concurrently with the clerkships and focuses on advanced interviewing techniques, clinical reasoning, clinical epidemiology, evidence-based medicine, and ethics/jurisprudence
The fourth year curriculum is designed to provide breadth and depth of learning experiences while helping students attain competencies at an advanced level (sub-internship) in the domains of patient care, knowledge, interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, system-based practice, and life-long learning. The faculty expects student programs to be academically broad and vigorous, with courses and clerkships selected to prepare students for the supervised practice of medicine in any field. A series of Special Study Modules focus on advanced applications of basic sciences and clinical medicine. Students may also pursue a Scholarly Project. There is flexibility within the schedule to provide diverse opportunities for in-depth exploration of areas of interest while helping students to select and prepare for the residency.