Overview
The Center for the Development of Clinical Skills (CDCS) assesses the student’s clinical competency based on direct observation. The Center was created to provide academic support necessary to teach and evaluate interpersonal and communication skills, professionalism, and clinical judgment and skills for our medical students throughout the four years of their medical studies. Our center is comprised and equipped with the following:
- Six examining rooms
- Audiovisual Monitoring Center
- Computerized machine for cardiac and respiratory sounds (CardioSim)
- Harvey Cardiorespiratory Simulator
- Basic Life Support Simulators
- Advanced Life Support Simulators
- Anatomic Simulators
Interest Area: Standardized Patient Program
One of the components of the Center for the Development of Clinical Skills is the Standardized Patient Program used throughout the four years of the medical curriculum. Standardized patients (SP) are being used worldwide to assess the clinical skills of medical students. Assessment in medical education has focused in recent years on testing actual performance in the clinical scenario. This performance-based approach is being used to assess the competencies of medical students.
An SP is a person trained to accurately portray a specific patient scenario in a consistent standardized pattern, in the same way they will encounter and interact with a patient at the hospital or private practice. In addition, SP’s will complete a checklist, following the encounter, in which they document the actions performed by students on history taking, physical examination, and behaviors regarding their professionalism and interpersonal and communication skills. SP’s provide high fidelity to real situations and they provide a standardized presentation of the same patient problem.
Faculty & Staff
Dr. José Luis Oliver-Sostre
Director
Ext. 2007 joliver@uccaribe.eduTBA
Administrative Assistant
Ext. 2008