The Clinical Skills Unit in an Integrated Medical Curriculum: An IMU Perspective

The astronomical growth in technology and medical information of the last century brought with it innovations in medical education, such as the problem-based learning (PBL) which emphasizes the integration of basic and clinical sciences. The clinical skills unit (CSU) is a major facility for promoting these principles in the PBL-based curriculum of the International Medical University (IMU) which exposes students to clinical scenarios early in their training. The teaching of clinical skills is systems-based, but also holistic. From the first semester through the fifth, students are taught interviewing skills, history taking, physical examination and nursing procedures. After semester 5 they graduate into the clinical years in either a partner medical school (PMS) or our own clinical school where the CSU continues to play a role, such as providing opportunities to practice clinical procedures on models before doing so on patients. The teaching facilities include 21 CSU rooms with models, a medical museum, a 50-seat briefing room, a teaching hospital and peripheral healthcare centres. Teaching is by part-time and full-time teachers who demonstrate on simulated/real patients and on various models. Assessment is continuous and is largely formative, including student to teacher, teacher to student, PMS-, and alumni feedbacks. Summative assessment, mainly by the objective-structured clinical examination (OSCE), is done at the ends of semesters 3 and 5 and it is portfolio type and criterion-referenced.

並列關鍵字

clinical skills unit ； integrated curriculum ； PBL

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