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Foundations
of Doctoring: Using Art to Teach Observational Skills
The Foundations of Doctoring is a three-year longitudinal course
at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, which focuses
on basic clinical skills. In the fall of 2003, we incorporated an
innovative method for teaching observational skills as a portion
of our physical exam curriculum. We used a series of paintings to
teach our first year students how to be astute observers when it
comes to patient care. Our curriculum was adapted from a similar
program at Yale University School of Medicine. We trained a group
of twelve faculty to teach students in a small group setting. We
projected a series of paintings and asked the students to tell us
what they saw, rather than attempting to interpret the artist’s
message. After they exhausted what they had observed, we asked them
to speculate on what the message was, just as you would if you were
developing a differential diagnosis in a clinical setting. We offer
an optional trip to the Denver Art Museum to further refine these
skills.
As far as studying the impact of this new curriculum, we collaborated
with the Physical Therapy School in this initial project and they
are collecting data on the effect of this session on an interventional
group when compared to a control group who did not participate in
the exercise. We will be reporting those results in the near future.
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