The educational program relies on high caliber of instructors, including those with expertise in clinical disciplines, research and education. Basic and clinical sciences are integrated throughout the program. Material is organized according to clinical presentations.
Students are active members on major administrative committees including: Undergraduate Medical Education Committee, as well as on curriculum sub-committees, the Student Academic Review Committee, and the Medical Student and Resident Appeals Committee.
The organization by clinical presentations allows for a comprehensive approach to patient problems. Collaboration with multidisciplinary colleagues is incorporated, with emphasis on the physician as a member of the health care team. Elective opportunities allow students to explore areas of interest in greater depth, including clinical interests, research topics, and international health.
University of Calgary medical students are exposed to patients from the time they enter the Cumming School of Medicine. They are able to study fundamental material in the context of clinical application. This is facilitated by the Cumming School of Medicine's associations with inpatient and outpatient settings throughout Calgary and Southern Alberta. In these settings, students are able to participate in patient care and a team approach to health care delivery from the first day they enter medical school.
The Cumming School of Medicine has adopted a "Clinical Presentation" curriculum. This innovative model aims to organize teaching around the 120 +/- 5 ways a patient can present to a physician. These Clinical Presentations can take the form of historical points (e.g. chest pain), physical examination signs (e.g. hypertension), or laboratory abnormalities (e.g. elevated serum lipids).
The curriculum maintains an active learning environment with more than 25 per cent of scheduled instructional activities being spent in small group, case-based learning sessions. These small group sessions allow a unique opportunity for students to create an approach to problem solving using diagnostic classification schemes, analyse the objectives and content from lectures in an in-depth fashion, as well as communicate and exchange feedback with faculty and peers. Student attendance at small group sessions is considered mandatory.
The third and final year is called the Clinical Clerkship. During this time, students work on hospital wards, in ambulatory care clinics and doctors' offices as well as in the Emergency Department. During the clerkship students rotate through a variety of specialties. These specialties include Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Surgery, Psychiatry, Paediatrics, Anaesthesia, and Obstetrics and Gynaecology. During this time students will apply the knowledge learned in the first two years and their clinical skills toward the solution of common clinical presentations. Students will evaluate patients and properly manage their medical problems by conducting a comprehensive medical history and thorough physical examination, formulating accurate hypotheses as to the causes and solution of their clinical problems, formulating and implementing a management plan to deal effectively with the problems. Students will demonstrate the fundamental concepts of disease prevention and health promotion for individual patients and incorporate them into treatments plans as appropriate. Students will communicate and interact effectively with patients, families, medical staff and others involved in the delivery of health services. During this time students will accept increasing responsibility in patient care as the final year advances. Students will be working with multi-disciplinary clinical teams of nurses, physiotherapists, residents and faculty. Students will develop and apply high ethical principles and standards in all aspects of medical practice and will exhibit appropriate personal and interpersonal professional behaviours. In the clerkship, as in the whole of the curriculum, it will be clear that the physician can serve patients to the highest possible standards only if he/she continually acquires new knowledge and skills for as long as he/she practices medicine.
The Undergraduate Medical Education program employs electronic-based materials in lectures, small groups, and other learning events. As such a laptop computer is strongly recommended for all students.
Students are required to complete the first two years of the Curriculum within no more than four years from the initiation of studies, and complete the Clerkship within two years after the completion of the first two years of study. Exceptions are made for students formally enrolled in the MD/PhD or MD/MSc programs where the maximum time allowed for the completion of the combined programs is eight years and six years respectively.
In cases of leave of absence, the Student Academic Review Committee reserves the right to review all students who have taken leaves of absence prior to resumption of studies. The maximum duration of leave of absence without compulsory review of the student's progress by the Student Academic Review Committee is one year. If the leave of absence is in excess of one year, the student will be reviewed by the Student Academic Review Committee prior to resumption of studies. The Student Academic Review Committee may ask for the student to be reassessed prior to resumption of studies and may request the student repeat any portion of the preceding curriculum if found unsatisfactory before continuing further studies.
Cumming School of Medicine