General Professional Education Pathway Introduction Sites and Personnel Goals and Objectives Description of Pathway Pathway Summary Table Textbooks and Learning Resources Evaluation

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The Drexel University College of Medicine introduced the concept of fourth-year Pathways to help students organize their fourth-year elective choices. Those students who are confident of their selection of career specialty can select a departmental discipline-based Pathway. With the advice and mentoring of faculty in that discipline, students will be able to design an appropriate fourth-year curriculum to meet their needs and goals for the future.

At the end of their third year, many students may desire a broader fourth-year experience than embodied in any of the discipline-based Pathways, may intend to enter a discipline for which no discipline-based fourth-year Pathway exists, or may be undecided about their choice of career specialty. To meet the needs of these students the School of Medicine has developed the General Professional Education (GPE) Pathway. The purpose of the GPE Pathway is to guide students in selecting a fourth-year curriculum that will provide a broad exposure to many aspects of medical practice in a variety of clinical settings. At the same time, the GPE Pathway will prepare students for whatever choice of career specialty they make in the course of the fourth year.

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Pathway Director and Site Coordinator

Drexel University COM
Barbara A. Schindler, MD
2900 Queen Lane
Philadelphia, PA 19129
(215) 991-8561 Phone
(215) 843-0214 Fax
barbara.schindler@drexelmed.edu

Each GPE Pathway student will choose an advisor from a selection provided by the Pathway Director. The role of the advisor is to guide the student in choosing a suitable fourth-year curriculum, to provide advice and mentoring to help students decide on a choice of career discipline, to assure that the GPE Pathway student has appropriate access to courses in all disciplines and advice regarding career choices and residency programs.

GPE Pathway advisors are located geographically in areas where students historically have taken at least four "home" rotations. However, no student will be required to take a specific number of rotations at the institution where his/her advisor is located.

Associate Directors and Teaching Sites:

Site	Associate Director	Administrative Asst.
Queen Lane	Barbara A. Schindler, M.D. Office of the Dean 2900 Queen Lane Philadelphia, PA 19129 (215) 991-8561 Phone (215) 843-0214 Fax barbara.schindler@drexelmed.edu	Tracey McCafferty (215) 991-8561 Phone (215) 843-0214 tmccaffe@drexelmed.edu
HUH	David Brody, M.D. Hahnemann University Hospital Department of Internal Medicine Broad & Vine Philadelphia, PA 19102 (215) 762-4208 Phone (215) 762-3417 Fax (Barbara Tarr, secretary)
AGH	David Bertocchi, M.D. General Hospital Department of Pediatrics 320 E. North Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212 (412) 359-4379 Phone (412) 359-3663 Fax
	Rebecca Seip, M.D. Allegheny General Hospital Department of Emergency Medicine 320 E. North Avenue Pittsburgh, PA 15212 (412) 359-4905 Phone (412) 359-4963 Fax

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The goals of the GPE Pathway are:
1. to provide the student with broad experience in hospital based and/or ambulatory medicine in a variety of clinical settings.
2. to provide the student with a broad exposure to various clinical disciplines.
3. to build on the cognitive and clinical skills acquired during the first three years of medical school.
4. to provide the student with appropriate preparation for residency in a primary care or specialty discipline.

The student who has elected the GPE Pathway will have:
1. demonstrated that she or he has taken fourth-year courses in a variety of clinical settings.
2. demonstrated that she or he has taken fourth-year courses in a variety of clinical disciplines.
3. demonstrated the knowledge and professionalism required to obtain medical histories and perform physical examinations in various inpatient and outpatient settings; demonstrated clinical reasoning skills; demonstrated the ability to use available data to develop differential diagnoses and treatment plans; demonstrated oral and written communication skills. Individual course evaluations will be used to assess the student's achievement of this objective.
4. met regularly with the Pathway advisor to review his/her fourth-year curriculum choices and to discuss progress toward achieving his/her career goals.

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View the Pathway Summary Table

The essential components of the GPE Pathway are:

1. Subinternship in Medicine (school-wide requirement)

2. Neurology Course (school-wide requirement)

3. a second subinternship or an ambulatory primary care rotation

4. A choice of two required selections, three suggested electives, two free electives

Required Courses
All fourth-year students are required to complete a four-week subinternship in Internal Medicine and a four-week rotation in Neurology.

Required GPE Pathway Course
Students in the GPE Pathway are required to select a subinternship in Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, or Surgery or a rotation in either Family Medicine, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, or Pediatrics at one of several approved sites.

Required GPE Pathway Electives
An additional elective is required in Family Medicine, Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, or Pediatrics (but the student cannot repeat a rotation in the same discipline).

Suggested Electives (#5, #6, #7 of the table)
In order to broaden his/her knowledge and experience of medical practice, it is suggested that the student in the GPE Pathway consider the following:

1. an elective in critical care, such as the MICU, SICU, PICU, NICU, trauma service, or others with the Pathway advisor's approval;
2. an inpatient or outpatient elective in Medicine, Obstetrics and Gynecology, Pediatrics, or Surgery subspecialty;
3. an elective in Psychiatry: Consultation-liaison Psychiatry or Outpatient/Emergency Psychiatry.

Academic Advisement
Each student who selects the GPE Pathway will work closely with one of the Pathway advisors who will provide guidance and mentoring throughout the fourth year. The Pathway advisors represent many major medical specialties. The student's Pathway advisor will help him/her to design an individualized curriculum to complement previous experience and to achieve goals for the future.

The student in the GPE Pathway will be advised and mentored, according to his/her interests, in areas such as holistic approach to patient care, communications with patients and their families, communication with consultants, effective teamwork, principles of research methodology, and others.

As the year progresses, the student will receive advice and guidance about the residency application process. When the student has decided on a career specialty, she or he will be directed to appropriate advisors in the chosen discipline.

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Learning materials will be suggested by the directors of the individual rotations. The Pathway Director may specify certain materials that GPE Pathway students might find useful.

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Evaluation of the Pathway by Student Participants
At the end of each rotation the student will be asked to complete an evaluation of the rotation, including such items as the relevance of the clinical experience, clinical and didactic teaching, and the abilities and skills of attending physicians and residents involved in the rotation. This information, which may be submitted anonymously, will be used to improve individual rotations.

Toward the end of the fourth year, the student will be asked to complete an evaluation of the GPE Pathway, including items such as the value of the guidance offered, the appropriateness of the required electives, the usefulness of the GPE Pathway in helping the student to select a career discipline, and the usefulness of the GPE Pathway in preparing the student for a residency program. This information, which may be submitted anonymously, will be used to improve the GPE Pathway for succeeding classes of students.

Evaluation of Student Performance
For each rotation, standard student evaluation forms will be completed by faculty members and residents involved with the student during the rotation. The criteria for assessing performance will be designated by each course director. The course director will complete the standard composite evaluation form which will be forwarded to the Office of Student Affairs, to the Pathway Director and to the student's Pathway advisor. In the course evaluation process there will be no distinction between students in the GPE Pathway or any discipline-based Pathway.

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