Program Syllabus Clinical Practice Training Program Academy of Medical & Public Health Services
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Program Syllabus Clinical Practice Training Program Academy of Medical & Public Health Services Meetings: Saturdays, 10:00am to 02:00pm 273 Bowery Street, New York, NY 10002 Instructors: Jerald Chandy ([email protected]) Hewett Chiu ([email protected]) Pensri Ho ([email protected]) Marnelli Hamilton ([email protected]) Mon Yuck Yu ([email protected]) Coordinator: Mon Yuck Yu ([email protected]) Welcome to the Clinical Practice Training Program! This course is designed to equip students with the underlying skills to prepare for further and advanced study in the medical and health sciences. Pursuing a career in medicine, allied health professions, and public health is highly rewarding and fulfilling; but involves much time, preparation, hard work, and financial resources. Through lectures, class discussions, community-based fieldwork, and hands-on clinical practice sessions, students will be able to develop a deeper appreciation for the rigor and intensity of studying the medical sciences. In addition, the coursework is developed to inherently integrate public health and clinical research principles into the clinical sciences for students to better understand both theory and practice in healthcare. Program Syllabus | 1 Course Objectives The objectives of the program are to: Provide a well-rounded experience for the student to see how basic science, clinical skills, public health, health policy, and research design works hand-in- hand in the current U.S. healthcare system. Health professions schools often do not provide training in public health and health policy, and we aim to give students valuable insight into how public health frameworks affect clinical decision-making. Provide students with professional-level certifications that they can use to further their education and careers by boosting their credentials while partaking in a valuable educational experience over summer break or as an extracurricular during the school year. Provide students with the foundations for critical thinking and analyses in a clinical setting, and understand how various fields such as public health, policy, and research interact to deliver healthcare for patients. Course Methods & Materials The course is designed to include a fairly even split of lecture, class discussion, and practical sessions. Students will have the opportunity to explore these different modes of learning and develop study skills that work best for them for each of these modes. Lecture. Lecture-based sessions will include presentation slides. There are a few sessions in which the slides will not be available before the session, and two sessions in which the slides will not be available at all (Pharmacology and Clinical Cardiology / Electrocardiography). This is because the material for those sessions are particularly technical; it will help to learn the material if you reviewed the slides after having digested the lectures and listened to the class explanations of the background material first. Discussion. Class discussion is designed to stimulate individual in-depth thinking and learning from your peers. It is imperative that you participate fully in these discussions, not only because active participation is part of your grade, but also because this is the chance to really learn a topic well. Lectures can only teach you so much; real learning comes from challenging your own understanding of a particular topic. To prepare for such discussions, you must have read, analyzed, and completed cases and problem sets assigned to you. Practical. The practical sessions serve as an opportunity for you apply the theory and concepts you learned to simulated, real-life clinical cases. While both lectures and discussions are great ways to be introduced to and further explore a concept, practicals are the only way to master the hands-on skillset that form the core Program Syllabus | 2 foundation for the practice of medicine and the allied health professions. These sessions are taught through a combination of video simulations and instructor guidance. All students are required to pass all practical sessions to be eligible for certification. Course Website. Materials for the course made available for distribution to students will be accessible on the Piazza course website. Students enrolled in the course should receive an invitation to join the site and should activate their access accounts as soon as possible in order to retrieve course materials. If you are having difficulty accessing the site, please contact the Program Coordinator. Examinations There will be two examinations throughout the course. Both exams directly influence your eligibility for certification, and exams are not directly cumulative. You will sit for both exams on the date and time listed on this syllabus, under the Course Schedule section. Conflicts. Students must sit for both exams as they are scheduled. If you have any conflict with any exam date, you must reach out to the Program Coordinator prior to the start of the program; otherwise we are not able to make any accommodations once the program has started. It is also not guaranteed that we can accommodate for all situations that arise. Any exams that are re-scheduled after the start of the program will be subject to an administrative fee. Passing. If you do not pass one exam or any section of an exam, you will not receive certification corresponding to that exam or that/those section(s). You will, however, be eligible to sit for the other exams given that you meet all other certification requirements to sit for those examinations. Passing on AHA BLS and First Aid exams is 84%. Passing on Pharmacology and ECG exams is 75%. Re-grades. Re-grading of any exam should be directed directly to the instructor responsible for that exam. Please note that the entire examination will be re-graded, not just the disputed question. Remediation. Remediation will be provided to students requiring additional academic support at the discretion of the instructors. Exam retakes are given only for the AHA Basic Life Support and First Aid courses. Program Syllabus | 3 Case Project Healthcare today is a very collaborative environment. Whether you are a clinician, administrator, public health scientist, or other healthcare professional, you will need to lead a team, effectively communicate, and manage team dynamics and conflicts. Therefore, a portion of the course is dedicated to honing these skills in a healthcare setting. You will work on a semester-long, team-based public health case project in which you will research a real-life public health intervention. The goals for this project are to (1) allow you to apply what you learned in the clinical sciences portion of the course to solving a pressing public health problem and experience firsthand how clinical medicine integrates with public health; and (2) develop your team management skills. Successful completion of the project includes both producing a research paper and delivering a team presentation defending your paper, similar to a graduate school dissertation defense. More details on the project will be provided in a separate, dedicated document and will be reviewed in class. The Case Project will be graded according to the following criteria: Group Research Paper (Group Grade) 100 points Group Presentation (Group Grade) 100 points Assessment of Your Performance (Individual Grade) 50 points Assignments Assignments will be given on a regular basis. They can be in the form of problem sets, scenario-based discussion questions, theoretical discussion questions, or case studies. Notice that no assignments are simply multiple-choice questions – you will experience those types of questions enough on examinations. While they are not collected nor graded, the assignments are really to help you understand the material taught on a more intimate level and for you to actually apply what you learned in a setting when you have some more time to challenge your own understanding of the concepts taught. Please complete the assignments, as they form the basis for the class discussion (which is graded). They really only help you; contrary to popular belief, we instructors don’t enjoy creating assignments for our own fun. Program Syllabus | 4 Grading The following grading scheme will be used. There will be no curves and cutoffs will strictly not be adjusted. Examination I 300 points 30% Examination II 300 points 30% Case Project 250 points 25% Class Practical 100 points 10% Clinical Discussion 50 points 5% Total 1000 points 100% Please remember that for certification purposes, you need to pass each individual exam as outlined in the Examinations section above to obtain certification. To receive the AMPHS Certificate of Completion for the program, you must earn a final letter grade of “B” or higher (“B-” does not count). 964 – 1000 A 900 – 963 A- 839 – 899 B+ 710 – 838 B 649 – 709 B- 600 – 648 C+ 471 – 599 C 422 – 470 C- 300 – 421 D Below 300 F Certifications To be eligible for certification, students must (1) attend all class sessions; (2) demonstrate active participation and learning through class discussion and competency in practical skills sessions; and (3) pass the certification written examination. All passing and eligibility criteria are outlined in the Examinations and Grading sections on the preceding pages. Students who successfully complete all certification criteria will have their candidacy affirmed and reviewed by the instructor, and the certification process is then commenced.