Head Start
Interprofessional Collaborative Skills-Introduction brings earlier patient interaction.
At Michigan, you will begin spending time in the clinical world earlier than in a traditional medical school curriculum. The Interprofessional Collaborative Skills-Introduction provides clinical exposure on a regular basis throughout the fall of M1 year with a focus on interprofessional, team-based care.
Three goals of the Interprofessional Collaborative Skills-Introduction (ICS-I) are:
- Introduce students to the team-based aspect of the health care environment early in their career.
- Develop students' skills and awareness around respectful, appropriate and professional communication.
- Provide a clinical context to support learning from the Scientific Trunk and Doctoring Course.
During the first week of ICS-I, you will attend a panel discussion with patients and families who will share their health care experiences, along with meeting them in smaller groups to further discuss their experience as a patient or family member of a patient.
Early during ICS-I you will meet with many different health care providers and learn about their educational and training experience along with their role in health care.
From then on, your clinical experiences will take place in both inpatient and outpatient settings. We have a variety of clinical settings where we place students, including sites such as Emergency Medicine, C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital, University Hospital and several operating room experiences, to name a few.
You will have five experiences where you will witness differing levels and aspects of team-based care, where the patient is a member of the team. The aim of these experiences is to provide a basis for training in patient care, a context for what is learned in the Doctoring course, and an introduction for the Team Based Clinical Decision Making course. After these sessions, we encourage you to reflect on your experiences through writing a personal reflection. You will also have the opportunity to share your insights with fellow students in small group discussions.
Your interprofessional education continues over the next three years through a variety of courses designed to enhance collaboration with learners across all health professions.
Beginning medical education with ICS-I provides a foundational experience not only in the growing emphasis on team-based care, but also provides a context for understanding how care is provided. The course allows students to appreciate the roles of so many who are part of the health care team. These early experiences serve in some way as scaffolding for the learning that takes place in courses such as the Doctoring course and in preparing for clerkships. ICS-I also serves as a strong lead into the Team Based Clinical Decision Making course, where students work with other learners from allied health programs in working through cases, providing a very strong combined interprofessional education."
The Interprofessional Collaborative Skills-Introduction course was formerly titled the Interprofessional Clinical Experience (ICE).
Dose of Reality blog by M1 Duyhoang Dinh
