UTMB Practice of Medicine 1 (POM1)

Every 1st year medical student at UTMB is required to take the Practice of Medicine (POM1) course.  This course requires each 1st year medical student to work with a community based teaching physician for a total of 12 hours over a period of 7 months.  The 12 hours of clinical time are divided into four days at three hours per visit.  The 3 hours of clinical time must be in the afternoon since 1st year medical students are in the classroom during the morning hours.

Community Teaching Physician Qualifications

• MD or DO

• Board certified in their discipline
• Current license to practice in Texas
• No disparaging marks on the Texas State Medical Board
• Practice site is within 35 miles of the Galveston causeway

Disciplines

Any discipline that allows students to interact with patients and practice performing histories and physicals.

Community Teaching Physician commitment per student
4 half days per student (2pm - 5pm).  In other words, 12 hours per student split between 4 afternoon clinical site visits.  The clinic site visits will take place between 9/10/12 - 4/26/13.

An example would be that a student arrives at your clinic for 3 hours in Sept., 3 hours in Oct., 3 hours in Jan and 3 hours in March.  This would be the 12 hours of clinical time needed by one UTMB 1st year medical student.

Course Goals

Expose students to the practice environment of community-based physicians, and allow them to practice the interview and examination skills they are learning during the on-campus components of the course.  While students might function initially in an observation/shadowing role, the interviewing and physical examination skills they are learning during the on-campus component of the Practice of Medicine course usually allow them to advance to a  more participatory role with the physician's patients.

Student Evaluation

POM1 preceptors will need to fill out an evaluation form for every student after every site visit.  Each student will come to your office 4 times, which means you will evaluate each student 4 times over the year.  The student will arrive at your office with the same evaluation form.  Preceptors will be able to reflect on how they graded the student during the previous site visits and hopefully see progress over the course of the year.

Physician and Site Responsibilites

This link provides information about what is expected when a UTMB POM1 medical student arrives at your clinic or hospital. 

Benefits to UTMB Community Teaching Physicians

We ask that community-based teaching physicians volunteer their time to teach for the POM1 course.  UTMB does offer perks to our preceptors, however.  This link describes the benefits UTMB offers to our community teaching physicians.

Course Contacts

If you are interested in teaching medical students for the UTMB POM1 course, please contact Brian Sullivan.