Sir William Osler (1849 – 1919)
In this course, students will begin to learn the professional skills that are unique to being a clinician and a physician. The course provides the foundational skills in communication and physical examination which are essential for a successful career.
Each term builds on the skills of the previous, so that by the end of the second year, students will have the necessary skills to begin clerkship. In the first year, with the guidance of tutors, students will learn how to identify the core presenting problem of a patient, and gather the additional historical and physical examination data which will help to reach a diagnosis and management plan. In the second year, the focus is on the development of clinical reasoning and the introduction of more advanced interviewing and communication skills.
The information and material required to be successful in Clinical Skills is presented on this website, which also serves as the course syllabus. Please take time to review the content found in the menu on the left-hand side of this page.
A pdf version of the general course content included in the website can be found here:
| Resource Manual | [.pdf version] |
Overall Course Objectives
At the end of the pre-clerkship Clinical Skills course a student will be able to demonstrate:
- Professional attitudes and behaviours that promote respectful relationships with patients and members of the health care team.
- Insight into his/her abilities and willingness to use feedback and self-reflection to improve as a clinician
- Communication skills that promote a therapeutic doctor-patient relationship and effective information-sharing
- Interviewing skills that elicit the important elements in a patient’s medical history, including the patient’s illness experience
- Physical examination skills that respect the patient’s comfort and dignity and are correctly selected, performed and interpreted relative to the clinical situation.
- Clinical reasoning that integrates information acquired from the clinical encounter with other sources of knowledge, including that derived from self-directed learning, to arrive at diagnostic hypotheses and therapeutic plans.
- The ability to prepare written and verbal reports that accurately and efficiently convey relevant clinical information according to current standards for medical records.