2021 is the official launch of the 5 Cs Curriculum: Curiosity, Critical Thinking, Clinical Skills, Competence and Compassion. The graduating class of 2025 will be prepared as resilient and adaptable physician leaders who provide high value, ethical and appropriate healthcare in an ever-changing system; communicate respectfully and effectively in a patient- and family-centered fashion; collaborate with other healthcare professionals to devise treatment plans and strategies for adherence and self-care, tailored to the needs and preferences of the patient; integrate the scientific underpinnings of clinical medicine and best evidence into daily practice; and distinguish themselves as medical professionals in discovery, service and leadership.
The preclerkship curriculum places foundational knowledge in the context of the practice of medicine and the Rutgers RWJMS Core Clinical Conditions. Our culture promotes well-being and students will learn to curate knowledge, to embrace strategies that enhance quality and patient safety and to develop behaviors that lead to better health and healthcare for all.
The Unifying Themes across four years in addition to the focus on the 5 Cs are:
Patient and Family Centered Care in the Community Context
Evidence Based Medicine
Health Systems Science
The Courses in Pre-Clerkship:
Foundations of Physicianship
Foundations in Medical Sciences
Living Anatomy I, II
Integrated Systems and Disease
Cardiovascular
Pulmonary and Renal
Endocrine and Reproduction and Metabolism
Gastrointestinal
Neurologic and Behavioral
Two-week Physicianship intersessions with time for experiential learning in the clinic, community, patients’ homes, the health system; thematic content related to previous course/clerkship in ethics, professionalism, social determinants of health/structural competency, evidence-based medicine, health systems science; skill building; scholarship; electives; wellness and personal and professional development.
The clerkship and advanced clinical experiences curriculum will begin in the second semester of the second year affording more time for clerkship education prior to the residency application process. There will be deliberate spiraling of clinical science and foundational science knowledge critical for practice.