Competency-Based Apprenticeship in Primary Care

The Competency-based Apprenticeship in Primary Care (CAP) course provides an outpatient experience for 2nd year students to further develop key clinical skills as they approach their Clerkship years. CAP reinforces skills taught in the two previous Foundations of Patient Care courses: Medical Interviewing and the Doctor-Patient Relationship (Interviewing) and Physical Diagnosis.

Foundations of Patient Care Track

In Interviewing, students participate in workshops covering topics such as establishing rapport, motivational interviewing, trauma-informed care, and navigating challenging patient dynamics, then practice interviewing skills through educational sessions with standardized patients as well as hospitalized patients.

The Physical Diagnosis course teaches the components of a comprehensive physical exam over the course of 14 sessions through active learning sessions using a combination of simulation along with practice on volunteers and standardized patients.

The CAP course helps students further develop and practice these foundational clinical skills, to learn how to integrate and function in the clinical setting, and to prepare them to succeed with these patient-centered clinical skills during the Clerkship years and beyond.

In CAP, students participate in a series of workshops led by the course directors, during which they learn skills that will help them be more useful to you in the office (e.g., how to room patients, do vitals, do medication reconciliation, do nutrition/exercise counseling, write notes, present patients, etc.). Our hope is that students can "give back" to you and your office in exchange for the teaching they are receiving.

During CAP, students are expected to see approximately 1 patient per hour, to perform at least one observed physical exam per day, and to write 1-3 clinical notes per day. Students have a set of Competencies, each outlining a specific skill (e.g., the abdominal exam, taking a history). Students need to be directly observed performing these competencies and be "signed off" that they are competent for each skill by the end of the course. Preceptors provide a brief written evaluation of each student at the completion of the course. CAP preceptors can be from Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Urgent Care, or outpatient OB/GYN.

Time Commitment

• 15 full Mondays, spread over the course of 6 months (August through mid-January)

Faculty Development

• Faculty will participate in a faculty development evening meeting (by Zoom) in July. Several dates will be available to accommodate different schedules. CME credit is available.

Contacts

• CAP Course Directors: Clinton Pong, MD (clinton.pong@tufts.edu) and Jessica Platt, MD (jessica.platt@tufts.edu)
• TUSM Dean of Educational Affairs: Laura Baecher-Lind, MD, MPH (laura.baecher_lind@tufts.edu)