Clinical Skills Scholars
It is the mission of the Heersink School of Medicine to provide an integrated, four-year curriculum of consistent training and mentoring in clinical skills and professionalism. To achieve this mission, our school has created the Clinical Skills Scholars (CSS) Program, a group of clinical faculty selected for their excellence in teaching and clinical skills, who will teach and develop the UAB clinical skills program. Participants were chosen from a pool of candidates which included clinical faculty within the school. The goal of the CSS program is to have a cadre of medical educators who teach in and continuously improve the clinical skills of medical students.
Clinical Skills Scholars are teaching in the existing clinical skills curriculum for first and second year medical students (Introduction to Clinical Medicine-ICM). Each Clinical Skills Scholar is assigned a group of six to seven 1st year students and six 2nd year students. Scholars spend one-half day per week engaged in a variety of activities including conducting small group teaching sessions on clinical skills with the students, providing supervision and mentorship to the students over the course of their two years in the ICM curriculum and other activities. They will also participate in review and development of the school's clinical skills curriculum as it expands into the 3rd and 4th years of medical school. They will also participate in faculty development and training sessions designed to standardize clinical skills teaching and evaluation.