Department of Clinical Skills & Community Engagement

Welcome to the Clinical Skills and Community Engagement Department. The Clinical Skills Program offers a wide variety of "hands-on" training for students in all our Programs. In the courses and activities that our department offers, the students learn and perfect their medical interviewing, physical examination and clinical reasoning skills. Through our professionalism, and community service activities our students receive a holistic and well rounded education.

The Clinical Skills Center is equipped with state of the art models and is equipment to ensure a realistic and medically accurate experience. It includes 12 examination rooms with examination tables, simulation technology equipment, remote observation with video/audio capture, computerized data entry and intercom system. The Center is used for medical interview and physical examination as well as procedural skills training, practice and testing.

Our Department not only teaches and assesses the essential clinical skills in the controlled setting with Standardized Patients and models. Our Community Preceptorship Program offers students an opportunity to observe and practice these skills with physicians in the community during their first and second year of medical training. They witness and understand the role of the physician in the delivery of healthcare in the private community office setting early on in their training.

The Community Outreach Program offers all San Juan Bautista Students the opportunity to serve our communities both in a voluntary manner and as a formal component of our curriculum through the Service Learning Requirements. These experiences help the students to develop and improve clinical skills, verbal and written communications skills, lifelong learning and professional and ethical decision making.

The Clinical Skills Department is involved in medical education of all our clinical programs through our Clinical Skills Center. We also offer courses and activities throughout the 4-year MD program. First year medical students participate in the Introduction to Clinical Skills Course, during which the essential components of the medical history and physical examination are taught and tested in a systems based fashion. Second year medical students participate in the Clinical Diagnosis Course. In this course we integrate the newly acquired knowledge of pathology and illness models with the history, physical examination and clinical reasoning process to enable our students to reach differential diagnoses and initial workup steps. Once our MD students reach their clinical years, they participate in OSCE (Objective Structured, Clinical Examinations) exams for each of their clinical rotations as well as the CPX (Clinical Performance Examination) prior to graduation. Our department is involved in workshops, coaching, conferences and special electives all geared to improve and perfect our students clinical skills and ensure the best patient care will be offered by our students once they complete their training.