Issue link: http://kusm-wichita.uberflip.com/i/1510906
3 • Two days are spent submitting oral case presentations. • At the end of each week, students log that week's activities and learning. • The four weeks conclude with an exam. • They practice what they've learned with standardized patients (people paid to portray patients with specific conditions). They meet one-on-one with a patient, take background information and discuss a treatment plan. They complete the session by logging all their notes. These sessions are videotaped and discussed with them by faculty. Michaela O'Connor, third-year medical student "Dermatological conditions are notorious for the huge impact they can have on a patient's mental health." Brian Morris, third-year medical student "You're asking so many personal questions that can be hard for the patient but if you don't, they might go undiagnosed." Rachel Brown, MBBS, MPhil, professor, chair Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences in two of four inpatient service lines: Adult, child/adolescent, geriatric and consult/liaison, explained Ronda Magness, who, as the medical student coordinator for psychiatry, makes the rotation assignments. Ascension Via Christi St. Joseph, which has inpatient behavioral health units for adults, geriatric and adolescents ages 12 through 17, is the clinical site for the inpatient training. The students also spend several hours getting outpatient training at the behavioral health clinic located at the main KUSM-Wichita campus. Seeing patients who are undergoing both inpatient and outpatient psychiatric care, along with the SP scenario, "has all been very helpful," said Morris, in helping understand the importance of addressing mental health conditions as part of a patient's entire well-being. While Morris eventually plans to specialize in internal medicine and O'Connor plans to become a dermatologist, both said they realize the critical connection between mental and physical health and the need to be able to treat a patient more holistically. Four-week rotations In their third year, KUSM-Wichita medical students start seeing patients to get clinical experiences through rotations in a variety of specialties, including family medicine, internal medicine, OB-GYN and psychiatry. The four-week psychiatry rotation, or clerkship, is meant to help students get familiar with the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric or behavioral health disorders. During that rotation, students are assigned to spend two weeks each After spending about 20 minutes with Higgins, in which O'Connor had asked a variety of questions to help give insight into Higgins' experiences and her behavior, O'Connor was ready to give an assessment and recommend a course of treatment: Because of the potential for self-harm, she suggests the patient be hospitalized for inpatient behavioral health treatment. In another exam room, fellow third-year student Brian Morris had come to the same conclusion with his patient who had presented with the same scenario. Morris and O'Connor had just completed one of the final parts of their four-week psychiatry clinical rotation: A medical exam using paid participants who have assumed a patient profile in the KUSM-Wichita Standardized Patient Center. Designed to be like a real-life patient-doctor visit, the SP program gives medical students and residents the opportunity to demonstrate how they would communicate and provide patient care in a controlled environment.