Seattle Foundations Site Information

A Day in the Life of a Seattle Medical Student:

Class time: Students have four or five hours of class per day, with most days incorporating interactive learning or laboratories. A limited number of learning experiences may be scheduled outside of normal class hours. Class delivery methods vary by block and within a block. All blocks are designed to have predominantly active learning approaches. Students are expected to come prepared to participate in discussions and activities. All courses have periodic assessments and a cumulative final examination. Block objectives and core content for which students will be held accountable on exams will be the same across all WWAMI sites. Exams will have the same questions and format and be administered in person at UW. The timing of exams may vary slightly across foundation sites.

Block teaching: Instruction in Seattle for Foundation courses will be in-person. Your first two blocks are Fundamentals of Medical Science & Research (FMR) and Infections & Immunity (I&I). Both blocks will have weekly morning exams and a cumulative final. A component of the block curriculum is small group case sessions. Attendance at small group sessions and Anatomy and Embryology (A&E) labs is required.

Hospital Tutorials: See FCM Introduction below.

Clinical Skills Workshop: See FCM Introduction below.

Foundations of Clinical Medicine (FCM) Course: Seattle

The Foundations of Clinical Medicine (FCM) Course is a comprehensive clinical skills program with four integrated and complementary elements taught by College faculty physicians and other content experts. It begins with the Immersion block, which introduces students to clinical medicine and extends through the Foundations Phase. The four integrated elements of FCM are:

Immersion: FCM starts with intensive initial clinical skills training in the fundamentals of doctor-patient communication, medical interviewing, and the basic physical exam. It introduces many other subjects important to the practice of medicine, and you will start to build the College community that you’ll learn and grow with over the next four years. By the end of Immersion, you will be prepared to see patients with your mentor in the fall. Immersion will be eight days long, scheduled from 09/04-09/11/2024, and be in-person.

Hospital Tutorials: Every other week, on Tuesday, Wednesday, or Thursday morning, you’ll meet with your College faculty mentor and your College small group at one of our teaching hospitals. You’ll practice the history and physical exam with a hospitalized patient who has agreed to see you, observed by your College mentor and sometimes a peer. They’ll give you feedback and coach you on how to improve your skills. Your small group will learn from patients together at the bedside, and you’ll learn to do oral case presentations and to write up the history and physical of the patients you see.

Clinical Skills Workshops: You’ll have a Clinical Skills Workshop every other Wednesday afternoon. These workshops are a chance to practice new clinical skills in a classroom, often with simulated patients. You’ll cover more advanced communication and physical exam skills in hands-on, interactive small groups aligned with the content of your current Foundations blocks. You’ll also learn about other topics important for patient care, including clinical reasoning, behavioral medicine, continuity care, and interprofessional teamwork.

Primary Care Practicum (PCP): Starting in January, you will have continuity in a primary care physician’s office every other Wednesday for the rest of the Foundations Phase. This longitudinal experience within an active practice emphasizes outpatient clinical skills, especially the focused history and physical exam, patient and family relationships, chronic disease care, and healthcare teamwork. Clinical preceptors are community physicians selected for their interest in medical student education. In the clinic, you’ll be able to apply many of the skills you’ve learned in Clinical Skills Workshops and Hospital Tutorials.

Students requesting a disability accommodation for FCM or any blocks/courses need to contact Disability Resource Services (DRS) directly by contacting UW DRS (uwdrs@uw.edu) or http://depts.washington.edu/uwdrs/ as soon as possible AND before the start of immersion so that appropriate accommodations can be made available in a timely fashion to allow the student to participate fully. This process can take between 2-6 weeks once your medical documentation has been submitted. Accommodations cannot be implemented until a DRS evaluation has been completed and appropriate accommodations are determined.

If students have any questions, they can also contact Dr. Maya Sardesai (sardesai@uw.edu), assistant dean for student development, or Sarah Wood (sewood@uw.edu), director for student affairs.