| Curriculum Description: M1 and M2 years. In 1996, Creighton University School of Medicine implemented a new integrated curriculum for the students
called “The Curriculum for the 21st Century.” The curriculum featured an interdisciplinary approach to teaching
and organized coursework around basic scientific principles and the systems of the body. A didactic/experiential series of courses entitled “The Patient and Society” were designed to provide formal instruction
in medical ethics, physical diagnosis, behavioral medicine and concentrated dedicated experiences in social medicine topics
such as Death and Dying, Marginalized Patients, and Abuse and the Treatment of the Elderly. In each of these courses, we have included modules in underrepresented minority health issues (see
Table).
Curriculum Description: M3 and M4 years. Several unique opportunities exist for students to acquire exposure to minority health issues.
For example, Creighton University Medical Center is a leading provider of indigent care in the city of Omaha;
thus, students participate in the care of many underrepresented minority patients.
The presence of these patients creates unique opportunities for education in cultural competence.
During their initial clinical training, students rotate among clerkships in Inpatient Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Surgery, Pediatrics, Psychiatry
and Obstetrics and Gynecology. During these courses, students receive didactic instruction in their professions and interact
with countless patients from a variety of cultures. Often, standardized patients are used as an assessment tool for the acquisition of clinical skills.
As part of the Family Medicine rotation, Creighton offers ambulatory care settings that serve the disadvantaged.
For example, the inpatient medicine rotation at St. Mary’s Hospital in San Francisco provides students the opportunity to care for indigent patients,
many of whom are minorities. Also, the third year contains a new component, an inter-clerkship course that provides didactic
and small group instruction in advanced topics in clinical education. Immediately following the conclusion of each of their clerkships,
all of our students gather together for two half-day experiences in evidence-based medicine, ethics, bio-terrorism, human sexuality,
alternative medicine, professionalism, and cultural competence.
The cultural competency module consists of lectures
from three outside experts in cultural competence as well as group exercises to explore the influence of diverse attitudes
and beliefs on the practice of medicine.
As a part of the Cultural Competency training this
year, students were required to submit a case study based on
a sensitive situation that they encountered involving race/culture
in their own medical training. Those case studies are available for
viewing and will be changed periodically.
Case
studies available for viewing.
The fourth year consists of a mixture of required and
elective courses that supply advanced clinical training to
students who soon will become residents. Currently, fourth-year
students choose from many electives that contain significant
content addressing minority health or cultural competency issues
as described on Table |
