SJBSM General Competencies

The medical education curriculum at San Juan Bautista School of Medicine (SJBSM) is designed to prepare students with the essential knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary to provide effective, compassionate health care within a rapidly evolving health care environment. SJBSM requires students to achieve proficiency in eight competency domains: Patient Care, Knowledge for Practice, Problem Base Learning and Improvement, Interpersonal and Communication Skills, Professionalism, System Based Practice, Interprofessional Collaboration, and Personal and Professional Development. These competency domains were identifies by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Physician Competency Reference Set (PCRS)to define the desired outcomes across the continuum of education, training, and practice of physicians and other health professionals. Thus, SJBSM requires students to achieve the following general competencies prior to graduation:

Eight Domain Competencies

Patient Care

Students must demonstrate willingness and ability to provide health care to patients that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective for treating health problems and promoting health.

Knowledge for Practice

Students must demonstrate the application of knowledge about established and evolving biomedical, clinical, epidemiological and social-behavioral sciences to the delivery of quality and safe patient care.

Problem Base Learning and Improvement

Students must be able to investigate and evaluate patient care practices, appraise and assimilate scientific evidence, and continually improve their practice of medicine.

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Students must demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in effective information exchange and teaming with patients, patients’ families, and professional associates.

Professionalism

Students must demonstrate a commitment to developing a scientific mind, real world comprehensive knowledge, skills and knowledge for optimal patient care and professional behavior.

System Based Practice

Students must demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context and systems of health care and the ability to call on system resources to provide care that is of optimal value.

Interprofessional Collaboration

Students must demonstrate the ability to engage in an inter-professional team in a manner that optimizes safe, effective patient and population-centered care.

Personal and Professional Development

Students must demonstrate the qualities required to sustain lifelong personal and professional growth.

For each competency, a set of objectives defines the expected progress throughout medical school and upon graduation. The SJBSM educational program objectives encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviours, and attitudes students are expected to exhibit as evidence of their achieving competencies necessary for graduation and receipt of the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. In addition to guiding student learning, the SJBSM competencies and objectives will also guide curriculum design, innovation and ongoing faculty development. The following table links the SJBSM educational program objectives to general competences expected of SJBSM graduates and identifies the outcome measures that indicate achievement of each listed objective.

Medical Education Program Objectives

The Medical Education Program Objectives (MEPOs) for the SJBSM MD program, as approved by the Executive Curriculum Committee (ECC), encompass the knowledge, skills, behaviors, and attitudes students are expected to exhibit as evidence of their achieving competencies necessary for graduation and receipt of the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree. In addition to guiding student learning, these MEPOs will also guide curriculum design, innovation, and ongoing faculty development.

  1. Apply established and evolving biomedical, clinical, and socio-behavioral sciences to explain health and disease and support patient care decisions.
  2. Apply principles of population health, health systems science, health policy, and value-based care to identify health problems, reduce risk factors, and promote health among individuals and populations.
  3. Analyze clinical information to formulate differential diagnoses and develop evidence-based management plans.
  4. Locate, appraise, and apply evidence from scientific studies to address patients’ health problems and improve clinical decision-making.
  5. Retrieve, manage, evaluate, and use biomedical information, health information technologies, digital health tools, and emerging technologies to support evidence-based clinical decision-making.
  6. Use community and healthcare resources to support patient care, care transitions, disease prevention, and health promotion.
  7. Obtain comprehensive and focused medical histories that include essential biomedical, psychosocial, behavioral, and contextual information.
  8. Perform complete and focused physical examinations, including mental status examinations, appropriate to the clinical context.
  9. Communicate effectively, orally and in writing, with patients, families, colleagues, and other healthcare professionals, including the clear and organized presentation of clinical information.
  10. Document clinical encounters accurately, completely, clearly, and in a timely and accessible manner.
  11. Interpret commonly used diagnostic tests and procedures using evidence-based principles to define and manage medical problems.
  12. Develop and implement appropriate diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for patients with acute and chronic conditions, safely enter clinical orders and prescriptions, and perform basic clinical procedures using patient safety principles.
  13. Recognize life-threatening emergencies and provide initial management and therapy.
  14. Evaluate and manage health problems in a timely, effective, patient-centered, and ethical manner.
  15. Adapt to advances in medicine, healthcare delivery, quality improvement, patient safety, and healthcare technologies to meet the evolving needs of patients and communities.
  16. Educate patients, families, individuals, and community groups about disease management, prevention, treatment options, and healthy lifestyles.
  17. Demonstrate ethical and professional behavior consistent with the values, standards, legal responsibilities, and informed consent practices of the medical profession.
  18. Engage in self-directed learning, reflective practice, and continuous professional development through feedback incorporation, self-assessment, and recognition of personal limitations, and attention to personal well-being.
  19. Collaborate effectively with and learn from other health professionals while contributing to and, when appropriate, leading interprofessional teams and maintaining respect, dignity, diversity, ethical integrity, and trust.
  20. Coordinate safe transitions of care through effective patient handoffs, interprofessional collaboration, continuity of care, and application of patient safety and quality improvement principles.
  21. Provide equitable, culturally responsive, patient-centered care and advocate for patients and communities by addressing social determinants of health, reducing health disparities, and responding to community needs.
  22. Recognize and address threats to professionalism, including conflicts of interest related to financial and organizational arrangements in medical practice.
  23. Demonstrate empathy, kindness, and respect for patient privacy and dignity in all clinical interactions.
  24. Demonstrate cultural humility, respect, inclusiveness, and responsiveness to patients, families, colleagues, and communities with diverse cultural, ethnic, linguistic, socioeconomic, and social backgrounds.
  25. Apply medico-legal and ethical principles relevant to clinical practice and professional performance.
  26. Critically evaluate, interpret, and apply research evidence and investigative findings to improve patient care, community health, and evidence-informed clinical decision-making.
  27. Apply ethical principles and regulatory requirements in the conduct, interpretation, dissemination, and use of research involving human participants, health-related data, and scholarly activities.