Fourth-Year Medical Students Get Skills Training at Gordon Center

The Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine recently hosted the Senior Capstone Course for fourth-year students.

Miller School fourth-year students practice treatment skills on a child simulator at the Gordon Center.

The 12-day course, which is built on the Core Entrustable Professional Activities for entering residency, offers students an opportunity to review concepts and practice diagnostic/therapeutic algorithms, procedural skills, and communication tools in preparation for their internship year. It provides a combination of didactic lectures, small-group sessions, team-building exercises, procedural skills training, paper cases and simulation-based exercises.

The course began with a large interprofessional team simulation exercise with nursing students from the University of Miami School of Nursing and Health Studies. It culminated with an objective structured clinical examination, in which students have to manage a variety of simulated medical emergencies.

This was the fifth year this course, which was developed by Gauri Agarwal, M.D., associate regional dean for medical curriculum, and Hector Rivera, M.D., the Gordon Center’s assistant director of curriculum and technology development, has been held. It is currently directed by Dr. Agarwal and Paul E. Mendez, M.D., associate dean for clinical curriculum.

“This course is appropriate for all graduating medical students, and we are continuing the development of subspecialty courses for students in pediatrics, emergency medicine, obstetrics-gynecology, and surgery to provide specialty-specific preparation,” Dr. Agarwal said. “It is immensely gratifying to see students progress in two weeks to a point where they are confident about carrying out the responsibilities they will face as resident physicians.”

Tags: Gordon Center for Simulation and Innovation, Senior Capstone Course