Education

Clinical Skills Foundation Course (CSFP) Sessions

The Phase II Clinical Skills Foundation Programme (CSFP) was specifically designed to equip students with the basic clinical skills which should form a solid base upon which a life-time of clinical competencies can be supported.
Training in the skills of patient interview, physical examination, effective communication and basic practical procedures, which form the backbone of the Clinical Skills Foundation Programme, will be repeated and expanded throughout the medical course, so that newly graduating doctors will be in full possession of these key competencies.
The Phase II Clinical Skills Foundation Programme (CSFP) has three main components to achieve the corresponding objectives, namely:

• Clinical skills in history taking and physical examination
• Skills for effective communication with patients and their relatives
• Basic set of procedural skills

Communications using Simulated Patients (CWP)

Communication with Patients (CWP) is a module taught in Phase II. This module will equip students with a systematic method to take a basic medical history from a patient which is the first step in a medical consultation, present a clinical summary to a consultant and communicate effectively using the Master Interview Rating Scale (MIRS) tool — all within a 10-minute consultation.
They will be guided one-on-one by an experienced tutor who is also a practicing clinician and an experienced simulated patient (SP) trained in a communication skills evaluation tool known as the Master Interview Rating Scale (MIRS). Students will have repeated opportunities to practice with SPs who will portray the patient in various clinical scenarios in a safe teaching environment of 1 tutor and 1 SP to 2-3 students. Detailed feedback will be provided immediately from both the SP and the tutor so that the teaching moment is captured immediately. With years of experience, the SPs have been specially trained by the Centre for Healthcare Simulation to not only be the patient, but also provide constructive feedback on their communication skills based on the MIRS tool. The MIRS tool breaks down the medical consultation into distinct observable skills. This will give students the patient’s perspective of their communication skills in eliciting a medical history. The tutors are selected experienced clinicians known for their excellent bedside manners, experts in their fields from both the public and private sector and are trained to give specific feedback on the content of history-taking as well as to help students with clinical reasoning to achieve the most likely diagnosis of the patient.
The module is designed to be highly interactive, fun, professional and practical. Students who have previously gone through the module have rated it highly, making this module the highest rated module in Phase II.
At the end of this module, students will be ready not only to take on history-taking in their first clinical exam, but to confidently clerk real patients in the wards.</p>

BCLS recertification+ AED

a) BCLS
This course aims to provide participants with the knowledge and skills for basic cardiac life support according to the guidelines established by the Singapore Resuscitation and First Aid Council (SRFAC). At the end of the course, participants will be able to:

• Understand the rescuer's role in the chain of survival
• Activate the appropriate emergency response system
• Perform Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) for adult and infant victims
• Relief foreign body airway obstruction in a conscious and unconscious adult and infant victim

b) AED

• Functions of the AED
• Safety Issues
• Preparation of Casualty Placement/ Attachment of Electrodes
• AED Practical
• Roles and Responsibilities of the Rescuer
• Documentation

Family Medicine

The Phase III Family Medicine posting prepares the students to care for patients in the community across social, gender and age divides, with medical problems that traverse organ systems and cut across the boundary-lines of the different specialties. The 10-week posting consist of:

• 2 weeks of exposure in ambulatory paediatrics to provide the foundation necessary to understand paediatrics patient care in the community setting;
• 1 week FM foundation course comprising of a week-long series of workshops and interactive learning sessions, supplemented with combinations of pre-workshop readings, webcasts, and learning materials to prepare students for encounters with patients during subsequent placements;
• 3 weeks of Polyclinics placement for students to be active observers of the services and roles of the staff in the Polyclinics;
• 2 weeks of Family Practice placements to observe Family Practice clinics;
• 1 week of Integrated Care for Older Person (the ICOPE) curriculum to train students in the complex care of problems that have become a norm in our aging population; and
• 1 week of Academic Family Medicine project, where CGs be paired and supervised in conducting mini-research projects.

IPE Patient Safety

As patient safety and quality are essential components to our future doctors and nurses, Inter-Professional Education (IPE) is introduced to our Medical, Nursing (ALCNS) and Pharmacy students as early in their 3rd Year curriculum. This workshop covers of a simple patient safety techniques and tools in their training to sow the seeds of basic concepts of safety in their minds as well as expose the students to other professionals in the healthcare team. Students will undergo group discussions as well as interactive/ didactic sessions. These enable them to have a better understanding on teamwork and communication skills for future collaborations in the hospital setting.

Exploring and Analysis of Clinical Examination and Lateral Thinking (EXCEL)

As a structured program that aims at encapsulating their knowledge spheres and building their confidence in critical analyses. The program consists of:

• Use of Standardised Patients to simulate clinical setting
• Direct observation of history taking and clinical examination
• Feedback and debriefing of every component of that simulated clinical consult
• Group sharing and peer learning to give a deeper and wider exposure of the cases discussed

Anaesthesia Airway & Simulation Module

Students will be attached to Anaesthesia department for about 2 weeks and will be equipped with necessary knowledge before they gets to the real practice. They will learn on intubation with the use of a task trainer called Airway Management Trainer. They will also use another high fidelity manikin called the METI to focus the learning on monitoring the patient's vital sign and others. At the same time, students will need to apply their knowledge on general & specific management principles in acute clinical emergencies scenarios. This is to improve confidence in clinical crisis management.

Emergency Medicine

During Emergency Medicine posting, Year 4 medical students are exposed to common life-threatening conditions during the Simulation Session held at Centre for Healthcare Simulation (CHS). The Simulation Session consists of 4 stations, including important scenarios like cardiac arrest and major trauma. Students are being assessed on their approach to critically ill patients: ability to obtain targeted history and pick up abnormal physical signs, interpreting point of care tests (POCTs) and performing life-saving skills on task trainers. Other important skills like communications and teamwork are also incorporated into these sessions. At the end of the session, the students are debriefed on what went well/ wrong, supplemented with materials that are applicable to the scenarios they encounter during the Simulation Session.

O&G Simulation Module

Medical students not being able to experience normal deliveries in live patients due to various reasons can now practice away from clinical settings. Due to the current pandemic, medical students have less clinical exposure and hence, students need a model to train on, which is realistic and available anytime and away from clinical areas.
With the VR Lab Simulation, real time feedback can be sought and this supports a self-directed and supporting learning environment for the students.
Test results suggested that our pedagogy and mode of training is intuitive for the students and they could learn how to conduct a complete normal vaginal delivery. Their hands manoeuvre to guide the delivery process were properly supported through glove sensing and virtual hand. Real time feedback allows a self-directed and supporting learning environment.

Paedatrics Psychological Medicine Tutorial

Students will be interacting with Standardised Patient(SP) that are potraying as a parent or and adolescents. They will develop skills in building rapport with an adolescent and be able to interview an them in an appropriate manner.

Advanced Simulation Posting

The two week Advanced Simulation Posting is structured to aid the consolidation and integration of clinical knowledge using practical and realistic scenarios linking the Basic Sciences with the practice of Medicine across various disciplines. This is achieved through interaction with task trainers, high-fidelity mannequins and Standardized Patients. The aim is to acquire practical and clinical skills necessary to function effectively during the posting and subsequently as HOs/PGY1s.

Ortho SIP Workshop

The 4-weeks posting in Orthopaedic Surgery will be spent in a single hospital to enable the students to better integrate into the respective departments and teams. This will allow them to participate holistically and longitudinally in the care of patients, from the emergency department/clinics to surgery/ wards to discharge. The posting will develop the student’s clinical ability, professionalism, identity formation, and provide a seamless transition to internship/residency training.

Paediatrics SIP Simulation

During this session, students will be introduced to a simulated ward round setup. They will develop skills on data gathering and be able to communicate with parents about their child admission.