The Medicine Clerkship provides structured opportunities for you to receive feedback related to your clinical skills. These are called DOCS sessions (Direct Observation of Clinical Skills.)

The purpose of the program is to help you improve your clinical skills. It does NOT affect your grade in any way.

During a DOCS session, you will ask either a resident or attending on your service to observe you, directly, as you evaluate a patient. The observer then completes a form that includes a checklist of core skills items and a rating scale. In addition, the observer will provide you with oral feedback.

There are 3 separate DOCS forms for each of the clinical skills categories that should be observed:

1. Interviewing/Comminication
2. Physical Examination
3. Case presentation

The DOCS sessions are best performed near the middle of the course at NYPH, either in the General Medicine block or the Cardiology-MICU block.

How to proceed:

1. Near the middle of the course, ask a resident, fellow or attending if he/she would observe you as you evaluate a patient.
2. Give the observer one of the three forms. These forms can also be downloaded from the clerkship web site.
3. Perform the patient encounter. This should be focused. The observer need not observe the entire encounter.
4. After the encounter, the observer completes the form and reviews it with you.
5. The entire session, with exam and feedback, should take 20-30 min.
6. The observer then returns the form to Dr Kang. Options are:
   1. Use the envelope that she provides at the clerkship orientation
   2. FAX to her at 746-5981
   3. Drop off on her mailbox at CIMA, on Helmsley 4.

DOCS sessions are required. The deadline for submitting the three completed forms is the end of week 9 of the clerkship. These dates are:

Quarter 1: Friday, August 31, 2007
Quarter 2: Friday, November 30, 2007 (postponed re: Thanksgiving holiday)
Quarter 3: Friday, March 1, 2008
Quarter 4: Friday, May 31, 2008