MD Program

Overview

Penn State College of Medicine offers a complete medical education program leading to the MD degree. Its central campus is located in Hershey, PA adjacent to Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, which is a part of Penn State Health's multi-hospital health system.

In addition to the program's central curriculum in Hershey, there are two parallel options within the overall medical education program. Our Accelerated Pathways are located on the central campus in Hershey, and our University Park Curriculum is located in University Park, PA.

All students will be expected to meet our 10 competencies and minimum essential standards before graduating with an MD degree.

Our Vision

Our goal is to train humanistic, systems-ready physicians who are adaptive, critical-thinking, collaborative, and scholarly.

Traditionally, medical education has focused on two pillars: medical science and clinical care. As health care delivery rapidly shifts from physician-centric to patient-centric, and patient care involves both the care of the individual and the care of populations, a more comprehensive model is needed.

At Penn State College of Medicine, the two pillars have transformed to four:

• Biomedical Sciences
• Health Humanities
• Clinical Science
• Health Systems Sciences

Educational Options

Our curriculum options are open to all enrolled MD students. Once you're accepted for admission to Penn State College of Medicine, you will be able to apply for the specific curriculum option you want. For combined degrees, you will need to meet the requirements and gain acceptance into the other program independent of the MD program.

Admission Requirements

Penn State College of Medicine is committed to developing tomorrow's diverse group of humanistic, systems-thinking physicians who will serve a broad spectrum of communities and lead in many areas of our health care system. We seek applicants who come to medicine with a passion to serve and a commitment to excellence and life-long learning. We seek students who bring a full, rigorous, and holistic backgrounds of study and experiences to medical school.

We accept students with good standing backgrounds who are, or will be, graduates of accredited colleges and universities in the U.S. or Canada before matriculation to Penn State College of Medicine. There are no restrictions on the type of major a student selects who possesses competencies in the designated prerequisite areas outlined below. The Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT) is required and used in a holistic manner with other aspects of the application in the selection process.

Prerequisite Preparation For Admission

Penn State College of Medicine recognizes that its applicants bring varied and rich undergraduate academic and personal experiences to their admissions credentials. In order to acknowledge the diversity and flexibility of our applicants' preparation, we have chosen to describe the competencies we expect of our students at the time of entry into medical school. Instead of listing prerequisite course requirements, we describe required competencies that will most often be met through traditional and/or newly established interdisciplinary courses of study in an accredited institution of higher learning. We define competency as the acquired knowledge to solve problems in the discipline. Applicants will indicate whether the acquired competency was obtained by course work or other activity such as research or work. Competitive applicants should demonstrate competency in each of the following five areas adapted from the MCAT description:

• Biological and Biochemical Foundations of Living Systems: The contribution of biomolecules to the structure and function of cells; the interaction of molecules, cells and organs in carrying out the functions of living organisms; the interplay of complex systems, tissues and organs in sensing internal and external environments and maintaining internal environment stability in the setting of changing external environments.
• Chemical and Physical Foundations of Biological Systems: Application of physical principles to explain how complex living organisms transport materials, sense their environment, process signals and respond to changes; use of principles that govern chemical interactions and reactions to form the basis for the molecular dynamics of living systems.
• Psychological, Social and Biological Foundations of Behavior: Biological, psychological and sociocultural factors that influence how individuals perceive, think about and react to the world; how they influence behavior and behavior change; how we think about ourselves and interact with others; and how they influence well-being and access to resources that influence well-being.
• Critical Analysis and Reasoning Skills: Comprehension of texts, extrapolating ideas to new contexts; assessing the impact of introducing new factors, information or conditions to ideas from the text.
• Scientific Inquiry and Thinking & Reasoning: Knowledge of scientific principles, scientific reasoning and problem-solving reasoning about the design and execution of research; data-based statistical reasoning; and general mathematical concepts and techniques.

Mastery of competencies is reflected by a strong performance in the classroom and on the MCAT, knowledge gained from formative experiences, and letters of recommendation. Applicants should have engaged in in-depth study based on the AAMC-HHMI Scientific Foundations for Future Physicians and AAMC Behavioral and Social Science Foundations for Future Physicians.

In addition to the above science and thinking and reasoning competencies, Penn State College of Medicine expects applicants to demonstrate achievement of interpersonal and intrapersonal competencies as described within the AAMC Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students.

Coursework and Experience

Although the most common methods of becoming competent in the areas described above will be formal coursework and personal experiences, we acknowledge that students may accomplish the learning in other ways. Alternative methods of preparation, in combination with coursework, might include research or employment experiences.

Advanced Placement Coursework

Penn State College of Medicine recognizes Advanced Placement (AP) courses for competencies only if they appear as earned credits on the applicant's college transcript. However, many of the most competitive applicants have fulfilled AP coursework in those same areas during their baccalaureate years.

Core Curriculum and Competencies

The central curriculum and the two parallel tracks share numerous curricular elements, the result of deliberate educational program design that ensures comparability. At the core, they share the same vision, core curriculum, three-phase curriculum framework, graduation and education program competencies.

MD Program Vision

To guide the development of a humanistic, systems-ready physician who is adaptive, critical-thinking, collaborative and scholarly.

Core Curriculum

The core curriculum, defined by the Committee on Undergraduate Medical Education (CUMED) is built on a four-pillar framework of 1) Biomedical Sciences, 2) Health Humanities, 3) Clinical Sciences, and 4) Health Systems Sciences.

MD Curriculum

The experience of a Penn State College of Medicine MD student comprises three phases:

• Phase I - Foundations: Students in Penn State College of Medicine, whether in the Hershey curriculum, one of the 3+ accelerated pathways in Hershey or the University Park curriculum, engage in two common instructional formats – small-group problem-based learning and direct patient experiences – with variations on the intensity with which each is used. For both Hershey and University Park students, lectures supplement the instructional formats.
• Phase II - Clinical Core: Students all complete the same eight core clerkships, an elective, and a Humanities course, in blocks or longitudinally. In addition, all students must take the "Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine" course before progressing to Phase III.
• Phase III - Discovery & Residency Prep: This phase readies students for success in their residencies. All students must complete two acting internships, a Humanities selective, the "Transition to Internship" course, and electives to enhance their-competency-directed progression in learning, professional identity formation, and residency preparation. All students will be expected to meet the college's list of competencies before graduating with an MD degree.

All students will be expected to meet the college’s list of competencies before graduating with an MD degree.

Core Competencies

The core competencies for Penn State College of Medicine are:

1. Patient Care
2. Knowledge for Practice
3. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement
4. Interpersonal and Communication Skills
5. Professional Behaviors
6. Systems-Based Practice
7. Health Humanities

Hershey Curriculum

The practice of medicine is constantly changing. Many of these changes are part of a transformation that will alter the way healthcare is organized and delivered in the future.

The three-phase curriculum is learner-centered and has been developed to prepare students for a successful career in a more integrated healthcare system. Graduates will meet all of the required competencies and subcompetencies.

The Committee on Undergraduate Medical Education, composed of faculty and students, meets regularly to evaluate and modify the curriculum to keep pace with new knowledge and changes in healthcare delivery.

About Patient Experience Program

Penn State College of Medicine’s Patient Experience Program launched in 2014, immerses students into the profession of medicine and into interprofessional teams to develop skills needed to practice medicine.

The curriculum integrates core systems sciences such as health policy, high-value care and population and public health with two threads related to evidence-based medicine; it also includes teamwork and leadership training throughout each of the seven modules.

The Patient Experience Program provides value-added clinical systems learning roles that allow students to learn about healthcare delivery while also providing an opportunity for students to assist in guiding patients through the complicated process of getting the care they need.

Emphasis on Humanities

We value the art of healing — not just the science of it. Penn State College of Medicine was the first medical school in the United States to have a dedicated humanities department, and this focus is reflected in our curriculum:

• Phase 1: Humanities coursework every Tuesday morning
• Phase 2: Humanities stripe across clerkships ("backstory rounds")
• Phase 3: Month-long humanities selective (required). Recently offered courses include:
  • Human Virtue
  • Jazz and the Art of Medicine
  • Graphic Storytelling
  • Medical Narratives

Additional humanities activities include the Farmers Market in Hershey, the arts and literature journal Wild Onions, and the Kienle Center Players, a drama group.

Societies

A supportive community is powerful, especially in a rigorous learning environment like medical school. At the College of Medicine, five learning communities (four at our Hershey Campus, and one at our University Park Campus) — called Societies — provide a way for students and faculty to network, connect, encourage, and learn from each other.

Each Society is made up of students from each medical school year and each physician assistant program year, a student president, a PA School Faculty Society member/advisor, MD School Society Faculty members/advisors, and College of Medicine course directors/deans.

Curriculum

Year 1

• Transition to Medical School
  • One week in the middle of July

  • This course, the first students attend at Penn State College of Medicine, is designed to help them make the transition to medical education and training and to begin to build some of the skills necessary for success in medical school and a career in medicine. The transition to medical school is a very important time in the life of every doctor – no longer in college or a master’s program, striving for high grades as an end in and of themselves, or as a ticket to gaining admission to medical school.

    These first weeks mark that time when medical students join the collegial ranks of the profession, and medical school represents the first step of on-the-job training. The Transitions series continues throughout the medical school curriculum as students transition into clinical rotations and prepare for residency.

• Scientific Principles of Medicine
  • End of July to mid-September
  • This course will provide a wide-range of scientific knowledge that underlies medical practice. Relevant material for SPM is drawn from biochemistry, physiology, histology, genetics, cell biology, molecular biology, and hematology. In addition, fundamental concepts of pharmacology are introduced. Because of the breadth and depth of material presented in this course, SPM is a team-taught course involving faculty with multiple expertise. As a consequence of this diversity, you will be exposed to a number of different teaching philosophies.

• Foundations of Health Humanities
  • End of July to end of October
  • Foundations of Health Humanities is focused on introducing habits of mind, core knowledge, and skills that students will use throughout all four years of medical school. Primary goals will be to address how cultural contexts affect medicine and health care (and vice versa), and how to think and act critically, ethically and with cultural humility in a pluralistic society. The course also focuses on issues of pressing social interest, including structural inequities like racism in medicine, justice and unconscious bias.

• Foundations of Health Systems Science
  • Mid-July through December

  • Foundations of Health Systems Science is the first course in the Health Systems Science longitudinal curriculum, which is focused on introducing the foundations of health systems science, including health care structure and process, health care financing, interprofessional roles and teaming, and evidence-based medicine.

    Patient Experience Program

    A key component of the longitudinal health systems curriculum is the Patient Experience Program (PEP). During the first year, students will a semester serving as guides to help patients navigate through the sometimes-complicated process of getting the care they need. The goals of PEP are for students to:

    1. build a therapeutic patient relationship;
    2. take patient histories that include screening and identifying social determinants of health;
    3. work with the healthcare team to mitigate the social determinants of health, and;
    4. understand interprofessional roles and communicate with interprofessional teams.

• Foundations of Patient-Centered Care
  • Mid-July through beginning of June, with breaks
  • Foundations of Patient-Centered Care (FPCC) is a longitudinal course that spans Phase 1 of medical school training at Penn State College of Medicine. It is administered within a student’s respective Society and integrated with other courses. In FPCC, students learn communication, professionalism, history-taking, physical examination, oral presentations, written documentation and clinical reasoning. The primary goal of FPCC is to prepare students to skillfully communicate, interview, examine and assess patients during the third and fourth years of medical school (and throughout their careers). Coursework, facilitated by Clinical Skills Educators, includes small group and standardized patient sessions held in the College of Medicine classrooms, as well as applied clinical skills sessions held in inpatient or outpatient settings. This combination of classroom and clinical settings provides students the opportunity to apply learned skills to actual patient encounters.

• Medical Student Research (MSR)
  • August through February, with summer option
  • This course will introduce students to the basic principles of clinical and translational research in preparation for future clinical practice and also introduce students to the Medical Student Research Program at Penn State College Medicine. It will prepare them for the later creation of their research proposal and report on the required medical student research project. Research ethics is an important part of this course, including how to protect human research subjects and how to maintain research integrity in the face of common challenges. Students will learn how to conduct an effective literature search strategy using databases of the published biomedical literature. In short, this course will provide the basic knowledge and tools necessary to successfully navigate the clinical and translational research environment. Over the summer, students will have the opportunity to conduct research on their MSR projects. MSR continues until final project submissions are received by Spring of Year 4.

• Host Defense Host Response
  • Mid-September to end of October
  • The Host Defense Host Response (HDHR) course addresses how the body maintains wellness and responds to threats. The primary learning goals focus on concepts in microbiology and infectious disease, immunology and oncology. This eight-week integrated course spans September to November of the Phase I first year. Problem-based learning (PBL) serves as the course’s backbone, complemented by large-group interactive sessions, patient encounters and clinical reasoning sessions. There are also opportunities to integrate Health Systems Science, Health Humanities and frontiers of inquiry to add perspective and depth to the learning experience.

• Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Beginning of November through mid-December
  • Course provides exposure to basic concepts in histology/pathology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, cardiovascular and thoracic anatomy, and clinical medicine related to cardiovascular medicine.

• Respiratory Medicine
  • Early January through mid-February
  • Introduction to normal and abnormal structure and processes of the respiratory system, principles of therapeutics and factors affecting disease treatment and prevention.

• Health Systems Science in Context
  • Mid-January through May
  • Health Systems Science in Context will build on the foundations of health systems science by focusing on the health systems science components of population health, health information technology, economics and value-based care, and healthcare policy.

• Humanities in Context
  • Beginning of January to early April, with breaks

  • Humanities in Context seeks to develop students' humanistic sensitivity, which includes ethical sensitivity, narrative disposition, critical consciousness and navigating complexity and uncertainty. The course will be aligned with the PBL/organ system courses.

• Renal Medicine
  • Mid-February to mid-March
  • The course provides an introduction to the physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, microbiology and pathology of the kidneys and urinary tract. Topics include the relationship between structure and function of urinary system; fluid, electrolyte and acid/base homeostasis in health and disease; etiology and manifestations of common diseases of the kidneys; and cellular processes that mediate the actions of pharmacological agents active in the urinary system.

• Form and Function and Anatomy
  • Mid-March through early May
  • This course has four major and overlapping components: anatomy, rheumatology, orthopedics and dermatology. The course integrates dermatology, immunology, family medicine (sports medicine), internal medicine (rheumatology), orthopedics, pathology and pediatrics (rheumatology). The subject matter is linked as joint disease connects orthopedics and rheumatology and immunology connects rheumatology and dermatology. The lecture content and problem-based learning cases will help to illustrate the “connectedness” of this block of material.

• Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology and Nutrition and Anatomy
  • Early May through early June

  • This course provides exposure to the foundational basic science and advanced concepts necessary to understand the approaches used to diagnose, treat and manage disorders of nutrition, the oropharynx, esophagus, stomach, small and large bowel, pancreas, biliary system and liver. Foundational material will include integrative physiology of these organs.

    The students will develop the ability to differentially diagnose, describe treatments, and review management of nutritional disorders and support as well as diseases of the GI organs and liver. The pathogenesis, pathology, differential diagnosis, clinical course and complications of GI and liver diseases will be covered, along with aspects of clinical management, especially the pharmacology of drugs used to treat them. The course will augment large-group classroom learning opportunities with problem-based learning, wet laboratory and simulation laboratory experiences.

• Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
  • May
  • This exam allows students to practice and demonstrate clinical skills in a standardized medical scenario. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in communication, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical knowledge, and integration of these skills. It is meant to be a fair and accurate way to assess competence, as well as identify areas that need more work and practice.

• Medical Student Research and Global Health
  • Summer, end of Year 1
  • Over the summer, students have the opportunity to do research for the Medical Student Research project and/or participate in Global Health opportunities.

Year 2

• Medical Student Research and Global Health
  • Summer, Start of Year 2
  • Over the summer, students have the opportunity to do research for the Medical Student Research project and/or participate in Global Health opportunities.

• Science of Health Systems
  • August through December, with breaks
  • Science of Health Systems is the third course in the longitudinal health systems science curriculum. In this year 2 course, the curriculum expands its focus on the health systems science components of quality improvement and patient safety and introduces methods of design thinking and the application of Six Sigma methodology to improve population health and patient safety. This course also focuses on leadership and preparation for clerkships including individual focus systems in various clinical environments as well as providing instruction on patient-centered care for patients with disabilities.

• Foundations of Patient-Centered Care
  • August through December, with breaks
  • This course, which spans Phases I and II of medical school training at Penn State College of Medicine, is administered within each student’s respective Society and is integrated with other first- and second-year courses. The course consists of three components: communication/clinical interviewing, physical examination, and integration, application and advancement teaching sessions.

• Endocrinology/Reproductive Medicine and Anatomy
  • August through September
  • The goal of this course is to learn about the general principles, physiology actions, causes and consequences of insufficiency or excess chemical messengers that function as hormones. These principles are then incorporated into the anatomy, histology and physiology of the female and male reproductive system, including pregnancy. Basic disease processes and therapeutics, including pharmacology, are also covered.

• Communication
  • August through December, with breaks
  • Communication focuses on exploring assumptions and biases that impact communication and communicating in dyads, teams, and larger systems.

• Neural and Behavioral Science and Anatomy
  • Early October to December, with breaks
  • NBS incorporates basic neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurology, neuropathology, neuropharmacology, anesthesia, ophthalmology, radiology, behavioral science, and psychiatry. The goal is for students to understand the structure of the human nervous system, the biological mechanisms that underlie the functions of the nervous system, the neural basis of behavior, and the diagnosis, pathology and treatment of diseases that affect the nervous system by incorporating these topics with clinical relevance. The course also includes pathology wet labs and Neurology Day, where students interact in small groups with about 14 patients who have various neurological disorders.

• USMLE Study and Consolidation
  • Upon completion of Phase I, students are given a dedicated study period for USMLE I.

• Clerkships
  • Beginning mid-March
  • Required core clinical clerkships begin toward the end of Year 2 and continue in Year 3. Clerkships are taught in six, 8-week blocks. See clerkship details here.
    • Block 1 clerkships are mid-March through mid-May of Year 2
    • Block 2 clerkships are mid-May through June of Year 2
    • Block 3 clerkships are July of Year 2 through August of Year 3
    • Block 4 clerkships are September through mid-October of Year 3
    • Block 5 clerkships are mid-October through December of Year 3
    • Block 6 clerkships are January through February of Year 3

• Humanities Across Clerkships
  • Twice monthly during clerkships, March of Year 2 through mid-March of Year 3
  • Phase II Clerkships can present emotional, physical and psychosocial challenges for medical students when rotating in the clinical environment for the first time. Humanities Across Clerkships (HAC) is a longitudinal course for medical students engaged in Phase II clerkships to reflect upon issues encountered in the clinical learning environment related to Humanities and career development. Medical students will work together to formulate solutions that will ultimately promote professional identity formation and advance career development while serving as a venue to discuss stressors and challenges. The sessions will be run in a virtual format or in-person and will be facilitated by a trained faculty member in a safe, nurturing and cultivating environment. By the end of the course, medical students will be able to process the challenges of and changes to professional identity while interacting with the clinical learning environment; cultivate individualized skills and tools to advance career development and to deliver patient-centered care; and utilize and solicit near-peer learning and mentorship with compassionate and respectful communication skills.

• Health Systems in Clerkships
  • Throughout all clerkships
  • Health systems is embedded in the clerkships.

• Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
  • December

  • This exam allows students to practice and demonstrate clinical skills in a standardized medical scenario. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in communication, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical knowledge, and integration of these skills. It is meant to be a fair and accurate way to assess competence, as well as identify areas that need more work and practice.

Year 3

• Clerkships
  • Beginning mid-March
  • Required core clinical clerkships begin toward the end of Year 2 and continue in Year 3. Clerkships are taught in six, 8-week blocks. See clerkship details here.
    • Block 1 clerkships are mid-March through mid-May of Year 2
    • Block 2 clerkships are mid-May through June of Year 2
    • Block 3 clerkships are July of Year 2 through August of Year 3
    • Block 4 clerkships are September through mid-October of Year 3
    • Block 5 clerkships are mid-October through December of Year 3
    • Block 6 clerkships are January through February of Year 3

• Humanities Across Clerkships
  • Twice monthly during clerkships, March of Year 2 through mid-March of Year 3
  • Phase II Clerkships can present emotional, physical and psychosocial challenges for medical students when rotating in the clinical environment for the first time. Humanities Across Clerkships (HAC) is a longitudinal course for medical students engaged in Phase II clerkships to reflect upon issues encountered in the clinical learning environment related to Humanities and career development. Medical students will work together to formulate solutions that will ultimately promote professional identity formation and advance career development while serving as a venue to discuss stressors and challenges. The sessions will be run in a virtual format or in-person and will be facilitated by a trained faculty member in a safe, nurturing and cultivating environment. By the end of the course, medical students will be able to process the challenges of and changes to professional identity while interacting with the clinical learning environment; cultivate individualized skills and tools to advance career development and to deliver patient-centered care; and utilize and solicit near-peer learning and mentorship with compassionate and respectful communication skills.

• Health Systems in Clerkships
  • Throughout all clerkships
  • Heath systems is embedded in the clerkships.

• Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
  • Two weeks at beginning of March
  • This exam allows students to practice and demonstrate clinical skills in a standardized medical scenario. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in communication, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical knowledge, and integration of these skills. It is meant to be a fair and accurate way to assess competence, as well as identify areas that need more work and practice.

• Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine
  • Two weeks at the end of March
  • Phase III begins with a two-week course in Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine. This course revisits key health systems science and humanities concepts in the context of clerkships, while also preparing students for the UME to GME transition. Students will practice advanced clinical skills that require excellence in humanities and systems domains, such as how to perform quality improvement projects, effectively transition care of a patient to a night team or separate team entirely, place orders and call consults, organize a team in urgent care situations, and how to engage in an informed consent dialogue. In addition, the course includes key professional development topics such as instruction on building a personal statement for residency applications, the process of selecting residency programs to which to apply and approaches to residency interview season.

• USMLE Study
  • April through mid-September
  • Upon completion of Phase II clerkships, students can select a four-week dedicated study period for USMLE 2CK.

• Phase III: Discovery and Residency Prep
  • Starting in April

  • Students enter Phase III: Discovery and Residency Prep following USMLE Board Prep. The Discovery portion of the phase provides students with opportunities for additional career explorations, time to synthesize principles learned in Phase II and additional time for focused research.

    As students confirm their residency choice, they move into the Residency Prep portion of the phase. This time provides students with opportunities to refine knowledge and skills as they prepare for entry into residencies. This portion of the phase includes variety of electives, two acting internships and a Humanities selective. Students also prepare for and take the USMLE Step 2 CK in the earlier part of Year 4. The phase is completed by the capstone course, Transition to Internship, followed by graduation.

Year 4

• Phase III: Discover and Residency Prep
  • July to May, with breaks
  • This portion of Phase III includes residency preparation, interviews, and the following course completions:
    • 2 acting internships at Penn State Health or Penn State College of Medicine affiliates, including:
      • 1 specialty-based core acting internship and
      • 1 critical care or emergency medicine core acting internship
    • 1 humanities selective
    • 24 weeks of electives (including at least 12 weeks at Penn State Health or College of Medicine Affiliates)
    • 2 or more 4-week clinical rotations must taken within 5 months of graduation
    • Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine course
    • Transition to Internship course

• Transition to Internship
  • Beginning of May to mid-May
  • The Transition to Internship course occurs at the end of each student’s medical school career and builds on these concepts in preparation for residency training. Transition to Internship is the final requirement for each graduating fourth-year medical school class, taking place just prior to medical school graduation. Its structure includes both large group workshops (involving the entire fourth-year class) and a number of small group “selective” sessions. Transition to Internship was designed with goals of providing review and practice of key clinical skills and concepts, as well as introduction of new information regarding communication and collaboration with other health professionals, teaching and evaluation strategies for interns in their educator roles and practice in effective patient handoffs. The course also includes time for reflection on professional responsibilities, personal stressors and individual support systems.

• Medical Student Research (MSR)
  • As a requirement for graduation, final MSR reports are to be submitted by February. Awards and presentations for outstanding projects will occur in May.

• Graduation
  • Mid-May
  • See the graduation section of this site for more details.

University Park Regional Campus

Penn State College of Medicine has a tradition of excellence in education that is scientifically and clinically rigorous with a deep foundation in scholarship and humanistic care. The University Park Regional Campus invites you to learn in an environment that fosters inter-professional team skills, curiosity and a commitment to lifelong learning.

The University Park regional campus provides unique opportunities supported by:

• A community-based medical center in a rural Central Pennsylvania setting;
• A diverse, research-intensive university; and
• Medical school faculty and staff dedicated to student success

The University Park regional campus integrates basic and clinical sciences with health systems science and health humanities. An additional focus on rural community engagement and experiential, trans-professional learning makes State College a uniquely robust setting for your undergraduate medical education.

Curriculum Highlights

Rural Community-Based Experiential Learning

Longitudinal collaboration with multiple rural communities in the surrounding area is the focus for multiple student-led activities (e.g., Lion Care clinic; LION Mobile Clinic).

Individualized Mentoring

Our small class size allows for one-on-one mentoring from core faculty and community-based preceptors. Individualized "coaching" augments your longitudinal educational programming.

Rural Focus

As part of our commitment to serving surrounding rural communities, the UP regional campus collaboratively addresses complex rural healthcare challenges to provide meaningful and implementable solutions. Lion Care and LION Mobile Clinics are examples of student-led initiatives to increase access to health care for under-resourced rural communities of central Pennsylvania

A Culture of Respect and Humanistic Care

Penn State College of Medicine was the first medical school in the nation with a Department of Humanities and we remain committed to fostering the development of humanistic, systems-conscious health care professionals. The University Park regional campus utilizes patient experiences, integrated small group activities, and faculty mentorship to longitudinally foster your professional development.

Financial Support

University Park Medical Students receive a partial scholarship for each year of medical school.

Leadership and Advocacy

Skills in leadership and advocacy are essential in caring for underserved communities. Intentional programming to support your development in leadership and advocacy is part of your experience at University Park.

Curriculum

Year 1

• Transition to Medical School
  • One week in the middle of July

  • This course, the first students attend at Penn State College of Medicine, is designed to help them make the transition to medical education and training and to begin to build some of the skills necessary for success in medical school and a career in medicine. The transition to medical school is a very important time in the life of every doctor – no longer in college or a master’s program, striving for high grades as an end in and of themselves, or as a ticket to gaining admission to medical school.

    These first weeks mark that time when medical students join the collegial ranks of the profession, and medical school represents the first step of on-the-job training. The Transitions series continues throughout the medical school curriculum as students transition into clinical rotations and prepare for residency.

• Scientific Principles of Medicine
  • End of July to mid-September
  • This course will provide a wide-range of scientific knowledge that underlies medical practice. Relevant material for SPM is drawn from biochemistry, physiology, histology, genetics, cell biology, molecular biology, and hematology. In addition, fundamental concepts of pharmacology are introduced. Because of the breadth and depth of material presented in this course, SPM is a team-taught course involving faculty with multiple expertise. As a consequence of this diversity, you will be exposed to a number of different teaching philosophies.

• Foundations of Health Humanities
  • End of July to end of October
  • Foundations of Health Humanities is focused on introducing habits of mind, core knowledge, and skills that students will use throughout all four years of medical school. Primary goals will be to address how cultural contexts affect medicine and health care (and vice versa), and how to think and act critically, ethically and with cultural humility in a pluralistic society. The course also focuses on issues of pressing social interest, including structural inequities like racism in medicine, justice and unconscious bias.

• Foundations of Health Systems Science
  • Mid-July through December

  • Foundations of Health Systems Science is the first course in the Health Systems Science longitudinal curriculum, which is focused on introducing the foundations of health systems science, including health care structure and process, health care financing, interprofessional roles and teaming, and evidence-based medicine.

    Patient Experience Program

    A key component of the longitudinal health systems curriculum is the Patient Experience Program (PEP). During the first year, students will a semester serving as guides to help patients navigate through the sometimes-complicated process of getting the care they need. The goals of PEP are for students to:

    1. build a therapeutic patient relationship;
    2. take patient histories that include screening and identifying social determinants of health;
    3. work with the healthcare team to mitigate the social determinants of health, and;
    4. understand interprofessional roles and communicate with interprofessional teams.

• Foundations of Patient-Centered Care
  • Mid-July through beginning of June, with breaks
  • Foundations of Patient-Centered Care (FPCC) is a longitudinal course that spans Phase 1 of medical school training at Penn State College of Medicine. It is administered within a student’s respective Society and integrated with other courses. In FPCC, students learn communication, professionalism, history-taking, physical examination, oral presentations, written documentation and clinical reasoning. The primary goal of FPCC is to prepare students to skillfully communicate, interview, examine and assess patients during the third and fourth years of medical school (and throughout their careers). Coursework, facilitated by Clinical Skills Educators, includes small group and standardized patient sessions held in the College of Medicine classrooms, as well as applied clinical skills sessions held in inpatient or outpatient settings. This combination of classroom and clinical settings provides students the opportunity to apply learned skills to actual patient encounters.

• Medical Student Research (MSR)
  • August through February, with summer option
  • This course will introduce students to the basic principles of clinical and translational research in preparation for future clinical practice and also introduce students to the Medical Student Research Program at Penn State College Medicine. It will prepare them for the later creation of their research proposal and report on the required medical student research project. Research ethics is an important part of this course, including how to protect human research subjects and how to maintain research integrity in the face of common challenges. Students will learn how to conduct an effective literature search strategy using databases of the published biomedical literature. In short, this course will provide the basic knowledge and tools necessary to successfully navigate the clinical and translational research environment. Over the summer, students will have the opportunity to conduct research on their MSR projects. MSR continues until final project submissions are received by Spring of Year 4.

• Host Defense Host Response
  • Mid-September to end of October
  • The Host Defense Host Response (HDHR) course addresses how the body maintains wellness and responds to threats. The primary learning goals focus on concepts in microbiology and infectious disease, immunology and oncology. This eight-week integrated course spans September to November of the Phase I first year. Problem-based learning (PBL) serves as the course’s backbone, complemented by large-group interactive sessions, patient encounters and clinical reasoning sessions. There are also opportunities to integrate Health Systems Science, Health Humanities and frontiers of inquiry to add perspective and depth to the learning experience.

• Cardiovascular Medicine
  • Beginning of November through mid-December
  • Course provides exposure to basic concepts in histology/pathology, biochemistry, physiology, pharmacology, cardiovascular and thoracic anatomy, and clinical medicine related to cardiovascular medicine.

• Respiratory Medicine
  • Early January through mid-February
  • Introduction to normal and abnormal structure and processes of the respiratory system, principles of therapeutics and factors affecting disease treatment and prevention.

• Health Systems Science in Context
  • Mid-January through May
  • Health Systems Science in Context will build on the foundations of health systems science by focusing on the health systems science components of population health, health information technology, economics and value-based care, and healthcare policy.

• Humanities in Context
  • Beginning of January to early April, with breaks

  • Humanities in Context seeks to develop students' humanistic sensitivity, which includes ethical sensitivity, narrative disposition, critical consciousness and navigating complexity and uncertainty. The course will be aligned with the PBL/organ system courses.

• Renal Medicine
  • Mid-February to mid-March
  • The course provides an introduction to the physiology, anatomy, pharmacology, microbiology and pathology of the kidneys and urinary tract. Topics include the relationship between structure and function of urinary system; fluid, electrolyte and acid/base homeostasis in health and disease; etiology and manifestations of common diseases of the kidneys; and cellular processes that mediate the actions of pharmacological agents active in the urinary system.

• Form and Function and Anatomy
  • Mid-March through early May
  • This course has four major and overlapping components: anatomy, rheumatology, orthopedics and dermatology. The course integrates dermatology, immunology, family medicine (sports medicine), internal medicine (rheumatology), orthopedics, pathology and pediatrics (rheumatology). The subject matter is linked as joint disease connects orthopedics and rheumatology and immunology connects rheumatology and dermatology. The lecture content and problem-based learning cases will help to illustrate the “connectedness” of this block of material.

• Gastrointestinal Pathophysiology and Nutrition and Anatomy
  • Early May through early June

  • This course provides exposure to the foundational basic science and advanced concepts necessary to understand the approaches used to diagnose, treat and manage disorders of nutrition, the oropharynx, esophagus, stomach, small and large bowel, pancreas, biliary system and liver. Foundational material will include integrative physiology of these organs.

    The students will develop the ability to differentially diagnose, describe treatments, and review management of nutritional disorders and support as well as diseases of the GI organs and liver. The pathogenesis, pathology, differential diagnosis, clinical course and complications of GI and liver diseases will be covered, along with aspects of clinical management, especially the pharmacology of drugs used to treat them. The course will augment large-group classroom learning opportunities with problem-based learning, wet laboratory and simulation laboratory experiences.

• Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
  • May
  • This exam allows students to practice and demonstrate clinical skills in a standardized medical scenario. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in communication, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical knowledge, and integration of these skills. It is meant to be a fair and accurate way to assess competence, as well as identify areas that need more work and practice.

• Medical Student Research and Global Health
  • Summer, end of Year 1
  • Over the summer, students have the opportunity to do research for the Medical Student Research project and/or participate in Global Health opportunities.

Year 2

• Medical Student Research and Global Health
  • Summer, Start of Year 2
  • Over the summer, students have the opportunity to do research for the Medical Student Research project and/or participate in Global Health opportunities.

• Science of Health Systems
  • August through December, with breaks
  • Science of Health Systems is the third course in the longitudinal health systems science curriculum. In this year 2 course, the curriculum expands its focus on the health systems science components of quality improvement and patient safety and introduces methods of design thinking and the application of Six Sigma methodology to improve population health and patient safety. This course also focuses on leadership and preparation for clerkships including individual focus systems in various clinical environments as well as providing instruction on patient-centered care for patients with disabilities.

• Foundations of Patient-Centered Care
  • August through December, with breaks
  • This course, which spans Phases I and II of medical school training at Penn State College of Medicine, is administered within each student’s respective Society and is integrated with other first- and second-year courses. The course consists of three components: communication/clinical interviewing, physical examination, and integration, application and advancement teaching sessions.

• Endocrinology/Reproductive Medicine and Anatomy
  • August through September
  • The goal of this course is to learn about the general principles, physiology actions, causes and consequences of insufficiency or excess chemical messengers that function as hormones. These principles are then incorporated into the anatomy, histology and physiology of the female and male reproductive system, including pregnancy. Basic disease processes and therapeutics, including pharmacology, are also covered.

• Communication
  • August through December, with breaks
  • Communication focuses on exploring assumptions and biases that impact communication and communicating in dyads, teams, and larger systems.

• Neural and Behavioral Science and Anatomy
  • Early October to December, with breaks
  • NBS incorporates basic neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, neurology, neuropathology, neuropharmacology, anesthesia, ophthalmology, radiology, behavioral science, and psychiatry. The goal is for students to understand the structure of the human nervous system, the biological mechanisms that underlie the functions of the nervous system, the neural basis of behavior, and the diagnosis, pathology and treatment of diseases that affect the nervous system by incorporating these topics with clinical relevance. The course also includes pathology wet labs and Neurology Day, where students interact in small groups with about 14 patients who have various neurological disorders.

• USMLE Study and Consolidation
  • Upon completion of Phase I, students are given a dedicated study period for USMLE I.

• Clerkships
  • Beginning mid-March
  • Required core clinical clerkships begin toward the end of Year 2 and continue in Year 3. Clerkships are taught in six, 8-week blocks. See clerkship details here.
    • Block 1 clerkships are mid-March through mid-May of Year 2
    • Block 2 clerkships are mid-May through June of Year 2
    • Block 3 clerkships are July of Year 2 through August of Year 3
    • Block 4 clerkships are September through mid-October of Year 3
    • Block 5 clerkships are mid-October through December of Year 3
    • Block 6 clerkships are January through February of Year 3

• Humanities Across Clerkships
  • Twice monthly during clerkships, March of Year 2 through mid-March of Year 3
  • Phase II Clerkships can present emotional, physical and psychosocial challenges for medical students when rotating in the clinical environment for the first time. Humanities Across Clerkships (HAC) is a longitudinal course for medical students engaged in Phase II clerkships to reflect upon issues encountered in the clinical learning environment related to Humanities and career development. Medical students will work together to formulate solutions that will ultimately promote professional identity formation and advance career development while serving as a venue to discuss stressors and challenges. The sessions will be run in a virtual format or in-person and will be facilitated by a trained faculty member in a safe, nurturing and cultivating environment. By the end of the course, medical students will be able to process the challenges of and changes to professional identity while interacting with the clinical learning environment; cultivate individualized skills and tools to advance career development and to deliver patient-centered care; and utilize and solicit near-peer learning and mentorship with compassionate and respectful communication skills.

• Health Systems in Clerkships
  • Throughout all clerkships
  • Health systems is embedded in the clerkships.

• Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
  • December

  • This exam allows students to practice and demonstrate clinical skills in a standardized medical scenario. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in communication, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical knowledge, and integration of these skills. It is meant to be a fair and accurate way to assess competence, as well as identify areas that need more work and practice.

Year 3

• Clerkships
  • Beginning mid-March
  • Required core clinical clerkships begin toward the end of Year 2 and continue in Year 3. Clerkships are taught in six, 8-week blocks. See clerkship details here.
    • Block 1 clerkships are mid-March through mid-May of Year 2
    • Block 2 clerkships are mid-May through June of Year 2
    • Block 3 clerkships are July of Year 2 through August of Year 3
    • Block 4 clerkships are September through mid-October of Year 3
    • Block 5 clerkships are mid-October through December of Year 3
    • Block 6 clerkships are January through February of Year 3

• Humanities Across Clerkships
  • Twice monthly during clerkships, March of Year 2 through mid-March of Year 3
  • Phase II Clerkships can present emotional, physical and psychosocial challenges for medical students when rotating in the clinical environment for the first time. Humanities Across Clerkships (HAC) is a longitudinal course for medical students engaged in Phase II clerkships to reflect upon issues encountered in the clinical learning environment related to Humanities and career development. Medical students will work together to formulate solutions that will ultimately promote professional identity formation and advance career development while serving as a venue to discuss stressors and challenges. The sessions will be run in a virtual format or in-person and will be facilitated by a trained faculty member in a safe, nurturing and cultivating environment. By the end of the course, medical students will be able to process the challenges of and changes to professional identity while interacting with the clinical learning environment; cultivate individualized skills and tools to advance career development and to deliver patient-centered care; and utilize and solicit near-peer learning and mentorship with compassionate and respectful communication skills.

• Health Systems in Clerkships
  • Throughout all clerkships
  • Heath systems is embedded in the clerkships.

• Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE)
  • Two weeks at beginning of March
  • This exam allows students to practice and demonstrate clinical skills in a standardized medical scenario. Students have the opportunity to demonstrate competency in communication, history taking, physical examination, clinical reasoning, medical knowledge, and integration of these skills. It is meant to be a fair and accurate way to assess competence, as well as identify areas that need more work and practice.

• Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine
  • Two weeks at the end of March
  • Phase III begins with a two-week course in Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine. This course revisits key health systems science and humanities concepts in the context of clerkships, while also preparing students for the UME to GME transition. Students will practice advanced clinical skills that require excellence in humanities and systems domains, such as how to perform quality improvement projects, effectively transition care of a patient to a night team or separate team entirely, place orders and call consults, organize a team in urgent care situations, and how to engage in an informed consent dialogue. In addition, the course includes key professional development topics such as instruction on building a personal statement for residency applications, the process of selecting residency programs to which to apply and approaches to residency interview season.

• USMLE Study
  • April through mid-September
  • Upon completion of Phase II clerkships, students can select a four-week dedicated study period for USMLE 2CK.

• Phase III: Discovery and Residency Prep
  • Starting in April

  • Students enter Phase III: Discovery and Residency Prep following USMLE Board Prep. The Discovery portion of the phase provides students with opportunities for additional career explorations, time to synthesize principles learned in Phase II and additional time for focused research.

    As students confirm their residency choice, they move into the Residency Prep portion of the phase. This time provides students with opportunities to refine knowledge and skills as they prepare for entry into residencies. This portion of the phase includes variety of electives, two acting internships and a Humanities selective. Students also prepare for and take the USMLE Step 2 CK in the earlier part of Year 4. The phase is completed by the capstone course, Transition to Internship, followed by graduation.

Year 4

• Phase III: Discover and Residency Prep
  • July to May, with breaks
  • This portion of Phase III includes residency preparation, interviews, and the following course completions:
    • 2 acting internships at Penn State Health or Penn State College of Medicine affiliates, including:
      • 1 specialty-based core acting internship and
      • 1 critical care or emergency medicine core acting internship
    • 1 humanities selective
    • 24 weeks of electives (including at least 12 weeks at Penn State Health or College of Medicine Affiliates)
    • 2 or more 4-week clinical rotations must taken within 5 months of graduation
    • Systems-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine course
    • Transition to Internship course

• Transition to Internship
  • Beginning of May to mid-May
  • The Transition to Internship course occurs at the end of each student’s medical school career and builds on these concepts in preparation for residency training. Transition to Internship is the final requirement for each graduating fourth-year medical school class, taking place just prior to medical school graduation. Its structure includes both large group workshops (involving the entire fourth-year class) and a number of small group “selective” sessions. Transition to Internship was designed with goals of providing review and practice of key clinical skills and concepts, as well as introduction of new information regarding communication and collaboration with other health professionals, teaching and evaluation strategies for interns in their educator roles and practice in effective patient handoffs. The course also includes time for reflection on professional responsibilities, personal stressors and individual support systems.

• Medical Student Research (MSR)
  • As a requirement for graduation, final MSR reports are to be submitted by February. Awards and presentations for outstanding projects will occur in May.

• Graduation
  • Mid-May
  • See the graduation section of this site for more details.

Three-Year MD Accelerated Pathways

Penn State College of Medicine's three-year MD Accelerated Pathways provide students the opportunity to complete medical school in three years with a directed path into residency, pending successful completion of their medical school training. Upon meeting the academic and professional standards for graduation from medical school, students are ranked to match into a Penn State Health residency program through the National Resident Matching Program.

A Unique Program

Penn State's accelerated MD Program is unique in that its pathways are designed to optimize the UME-GME continuum and allow students who already know their career path to progress into emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics (beginning in AY26-27), or psychiatry.

The benefits of the accelerated options include reduction of medical education costs and earlier career entry. The linkage of undergraduate and graduate medical education optimizes opportunities for continuity of patient care, mentoring and advising.

Positive Impact of Accelerated Programs

Penn State College of Medicine is a member of the national Consortium of Accelerated Medical Pathway Programs, initially funded by the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation. With collaboration, members of the consortium have conducted multiple studies and disseminated the findings that validated the positive impact of the 3-year accelerated programs.

A study that reviewed graduating medical student responses on the AAMC Graduation Questionnaire found that accelerated MD program graduates compared to four-year MD graduates:

• Feel as satisfied with their medical education
• Feel as prepared for residency
• Have equivalent rates of burnout, with better ratings in some areas
• Have lower student debt

Another study, in collaboration with the ACGME, reviewed the milestones evaluation of first-year residents who graduated from 4-year medical school versus those who graduated from a 3-year accelerated program. The results noted no significant differences in residency performance as measured by the ACGME milestones during the first year.

MORE INFORMATION ABOUT 3-YEAR ACCELERATED PATHWAYS

Curriculum and Assessment

Students enrolled in all 3-year Accelerated Pathways are held to the same educational objectives, sub-competencies, and graduation requirements as those in the traditional four-year program.

To accommodate the accelerated timeline, Phase III-Discovery electives are waived, and the students will complete at least the equivalent of eight weeks of electives.

Assessment methods in the 3-year Accelerated Pathways will be fully aligned with those used in the standard four-year curriculum. Students will be evaluated using the same rigorous standards, including completion of a competency-based portfolio that documents the achievement of all required sub-competencies. All 3-year accelerated students must successfully complete a Medical Student Research Project.

Phase I: Foundations of Medicine (Pre-Clerkship)

Students in the 3-year Accelerated Pathway will follow the standard pre-clerkship curriculum shared with the four-year track. However, selected courses and electives will be scheduled earlier to allow for acceleration.

In the spring of the first academic year, students will participate in a Career Confirmation Elective (CCE). This elective, held in the afternoon hours to avoid conflict with core coursework, provides early clinical immersion and faculty engagement within the associated department of the pathway.

During the summer between the first and second years, students will utilize the opportunity to fulfill their six-week elective requirement.

In the second year of Phase I the student will complete a longitudinal clerkship for the specific pathway.

Phase II: Core Clinical Clerkships

In Phase II, students will complete the full suite of required core clerkships alongside their peers. To fulfill graduation requirements within the accelerated timeline.

Phase III:

Phase III will be shortened with Phase III-Discovery electives waived. Students will complete at least the equivalent of eight weeks of electives, two acting internships, the System-Conscious and Humanistic Medicine course, the Humanities selective, and the Transition to Internship course. These experiences are strategically selected to ensure readiness for residency and support holistic development of all learners.

Competencies/Sub-Competencies and Milestones

Competency Domain 1. Patient Care

Provide patient-centered care that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective for the promotion of health and treatment of health problems.

• PC 1.1 Gather a history and perform a physical exam (EPA 1)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Obtains a complete and accurate history in an organized fashion for a simple (or focused) encounter
    • Appropriately drapes and protects patient privacy and modesty
    • Performs an accurate exam in a logical and fluid sequence for a simple (or focused) case
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Obtains an accurate focused or complete history depending on the situation in an organized fashion for simple and complex cases
    • Appropriately drapes and protects patient privacy and modesty
    • Perform an accurate and fluid focused or complete physical examination depending on the situation which distinguishes normal from abnormal findings; able to identify and describe normal and abnormal findings
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Obtains an accurate, reliable, and efficient focused or complete history depending on the situation, for simple or complex cases with multiple problems; seeks secondary sources of information when appropriate (e.g. family, primary care physician, living facility, pharmacy)
    • Appropriately drapes and protects patient privacy and modesty
    • Perform an accurate, reliable, and efficient focused or complete physical examination depending on the situation; uses the exam findings to prioritize their differential diagnosis
• PC 1.2 Prioritize and justify a differential diagnosis following a clinical encounter (EPA 2)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Organizes knowledge by illness scripts (patterns) to generate and support a differential diagnosis for simple cases
    • Differential diagnosis may be too broad or narrow, usually proposes reasonable differential diagnosis; may neglect important diagnostic information
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Organizes pertinent information to develop and support a hypothesis-driven differential diagnosis for complex cases
    • Consistently proposes relevant differential diagnosis that is neither too broad nor too narrow; filters, prioritizes, and makes connections between sources of information
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Organizes pertinent information and uses it to efficiently identify patterns and support a hypothesis-driven differential diagnosis for complex cases; able to identify illnesses that do not fit into typical illness script patterns
    • Consistently uses information to propose accurate differential; may references scientific material to generate and test hypotheses; recognizes errors in clinical reasoning
• PC 1.3 Recommend and interpret common diagnostic and screening tests (EPA 3)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Identifies common diagnostic testing and imaging and can interpret common diagnostic tests
    • Describes the concepts of specificity, sensitivity, and cost effectiveness of diagnostic tests
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Consistently and accurately interprets basic diagnostic information
    • Sometimes considers cost effectiveness of diagnostic test; recognizes need for assistance to evaluate results
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Consistently and accurately interprets complex diagnostic information; Distinguishes common and insignificant from clinically important findings
    • Considers cost-effectiveness of diagnostic tests; seeks help for interpretation of tests beyond scope of knowledge
• PC 1.4 Enter and discuss orders and prescriptions (EPA 4)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Unable to enter order in the EHR
    • Cannot articulate the rationale for an order
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Can describe how to place an order
    • Able to articulate a rationale for an order when asked
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Completes simple orders; recognizes when to tailor an order with direct supervision
    • Articulates a rationale for an order; May need prompting to take into account subtle signs/findings guiding orders
• PC 1.5/ICS 4.3 Document a clinical encounter in the patient record (EPA 5)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Accurately records information with some unnecessary details or redundancies for simple focused and comprehensive cases
    • Rarely demonstrates diagnostic and reasoning through notes
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Accurately records information in a timely and manner without unnecessary details or redundancies
    • Usually demonstrates diagnostic and reasoning through notes
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Accurately and concisely records information in a timely manner; appropriately uses documentation shortcuts
    • Consistently demonstrates organized diagnostic and therapeutic reasoning through notes
• PC 1.6/ICS 4.4 Provide an oral presentation of a clinical encounter (EPA 6)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Begins to deliver filtered, synthesized, and prioritized information into a well-organized presentation
    • Can identify pertinent positives and negatives that support hypothesis when asked
    • Rarely demonstrates ability to adjust or adapt to audience, context, or purpose
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Usually delivers filtered, synthesized, and prioritized information into a concise and well-organized presentation
    • Consistently integrates pertinent positives and negatives to support hypothesis
    • Often demonstrates ability to adjust or adapt to audience, context, or purpose
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Consistently delivers filtered, synthesized, and prioritized information into a concise and well-organized presentation
    • Consistently provides appropriate data and sound arguments to support hypothesis and plan
    • Consistently demonstrates ability to adjust or adapt to audience, context, or purpose
• PC 1.7 Perform general procedures of a physician, including informed consent (EPA 12)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Identifies anatomical structures
    • Familiar with some of the concepts associated with basic surgical principles but lacks required technical skills
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Demonstrates and applies a working knowledge of essential anatomy, physiology, indications, contraindications, risks, benefits, and alternatives for common procedures
    • Demonstrates basic surgical principles, including use of universal precautions, aseptic technique, positioning, draping, handling of equipment for common procedures during patient care
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Describes indications, contraindications, risks, and limitations of common procedural skills
    • Demonstrates common procedures efficiently and competently on multiple occasions over time
• PC 1.8 Recognize a patient requiring urgent or emergent care and initiate evaluation and management (EPA 10)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Not able to discern a critically ill patient or a urgent versus nonurgent situation
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Recognizes when a patient is critically ill with prompting; recognizes urgent versus nonurgent situations
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Prioritizes the care of multiple critically ill patients, with supervision
• PC 1.9 Give or receive a patient handover to transition care responsibility (EPA 8)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Identifies key elements for safe and effective transitions of care and handoffs
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Performs safe and effective transitions of care/handoffs in routine clinical situations with supervision
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Performs safe and effective transitions of care/handoffs in complex clinical situations with supervision

Competency Domain 2. Knowledge for Practice

Demonstrate knowledge of and critical thinking about established and evolving biomedical, clinical, and health systems sciences, as well as health humanities, and apply this knowledge to patient care.

• KP 2.1. Apply biomedical, clinical, health systems sciences and health humanities to clinical decision-making
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Demonstrates knowledge of the underlying basic science of each organ systems and how their form and function are clinically assessed
    • Demonstrates knowledge of social determinants of health and their impact on patient health outcomes
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Develops clinical reasoning skills through applied understanding of the pathophysiology of each organ system in diseased states
    • Describes how components of a complex healthcare system are inter-related, and how this impacts patient care
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Evaluates clinical signs and tests to identify common pathogens, modes of pathogenesis, and epidemiology of common conditions
    • Discusses how individual practices affects the broader system (e.g., length of stay, readmission rates, clinical efficiency)
• KP 2.2. Contribute to research
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Identifies and summarizes the central research question(s) being asked, key variables, and general methodologies in a scientific study
    • Recognizes need for variety of research approaches (quantitative, qualitative, mixed) to address research questions
    • Articulates potential research questions
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Reviews literature to identify knowledge gaps in field of interest; Delineates research question or hypothesis appropriate to the problem; Develops research plan that includes resource allocation, with help of mentor
    • Performs appropriate experiments and collects data to address the research question; Documents research findings; Uses appropriate analysis to evaluate data; Seeks assistance from others when necessary
    • Writes proposal regarding current state of the field, relevance of the research question; Describes appropriate methods to address the question and data analysis and understands his/her role in the project
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Independently identifies problems in current practice; Reviews literature, Constructs insightful research question or hypothesis and approach to the question
    • Uses appropriate methods of data collection, documentation, and statistics to address research question
    • Writes publishable quality manuscript; Shows interpretation of results and places work in the context of knowledge gained or practice improved; Acknowledges contributions of all individuals

Competency Domain 3. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

Demonstrate the ability to investigate and evaluate one's care of patients, to appraise and assimilate evidence and emerging research, and to improve patient care through a practice of being reflective and engaging in life-long learning.

• PBLI 3.1 Engage in continuous self-assessment and identify and perform appropriate learning activities
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Demonstrates openness to performance data (feedback and other input)
    • Analyzes and reflects on the factors which contribute to gap(s) between expectations and actual performance; Designs and implements a learning plan, with prompting
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Intentionally seeks performance data consistently with adaptability and humility
    • Analyzes, reflects on, and institutes behavioral change(s) to narrow the gap(s) between expectations and actual performance; Independently creates and implements a learning plan
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Uses performance data to measure the effectiveness of the learning plan and when necessary, improves it
    • Independently develops a plan to remediate or improve limits in the knowledge/skills of self or team
• PBLI 3.2 Form clinical questions, retrieve evidence, and critically appraise and synthesize information to advance patient care (EPA 7)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Identifies basic elements of the scientific method in both research and clinical reasoning
    • Recognizes differences between various types of information tools; Uses professional resources (ie textbooks, journal articles, databases) with guidance
    • Identifies and defines the basic tools of epidemiologic design and biostatical analysis
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Articulates clinical questions, locates and applies the best available evidence
    • Uses a variety of information tools; Recognizes relevance of information
    • Applies the basic tools of epidemiologic design and biostatical analysis to the design of a research study
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Critically appraises and applies evidence tailored to the individual patient
    • Uses appropriate professional evidence-based information tools (ie, EMR, Cochrane database, point-of-care tools); Recognizes valid and reliable information
    • Employs basic tools of biostatistical analysis to the testing of a novel hypothesis

Competency Domain 4. Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Demonstrate verbal and non-verbal communication skills that show respect for and result in effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, their families, and health professionals

• ICS 4.1 Communicate effectively with patients and families (EPA 11)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Establishes a therapeutic relationship in straightforward encounters
    • Often demonstrates effective communication skills, including silence, open-ended questions, body language, listening, and avoids jargon
    • Communicates care, concern, and interest in patients, families, and others as unique individuals
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Establishes a therapeutic relationship in straightforward and challenging patient encounters
    • Consistently demonstrates effective communication skills, including silence, open-ended questions, body language, listening, and avoids jargon
    • Displays empathic behaviors with patients, families, and other individuals
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Easily establishes therapeutic relationships, with attention to patient/family concerns and context, regardless of complexity
    • Responds effectively to patient's verbal and nonverbal cues and emotions
    • Consistently displays appropriate and empathic behaviors with patients, families, and other individuals
• ICS 4.2/SBP 6.1 Collaborate as a member of a team, including members of one's profession or interprofessional teams (EPA 9)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Seeks to understand discipline-specific perspective
    • Acknowledges the expertise of others; Communicates in a timely manner
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Frequently explains own and seeks to understand various professional perspectives; Avoids jargon
    • Demonstrates positive regard for other team members; Acknowledges the expertise of others, Communicates in a timely manner
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Consistently explains own and seeks to understand various professional perspectives; Avoids jargon
    • Consistently demonstrates positive regard for other team members; Acknowledges and incorporates the expertise of others; Communicates in a timely manner
• ICS 4.3/PC 1.5 Document a clinical encounter in the patient record (EPA 5)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • See PC 1.5 above
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • See PC 1.5 above
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • See PC 1.5 above
• ICS 4.4/PC 1.6 Provide an oral presentation of a clinical encounter (EPA 6)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • See PC 1.6 above
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • See PC 1.6 above
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • See PC 1.6 above

Competency Domain 5. Professional Behaviors

Demonstrate professional behavior with patients and families, teams, health systems and society.

• PB 5.1/HH 7.2 Act with honesty, integrity, accountability, reliability self-regulation, and emotional awareness, adhering to ethical norms and principles
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Demonstrates professional behavior in complex or stressful situations
    • Demonstrates insight into professional behavior in routine situation. Takes responsibility for own professionalism lapses
    • Performs tasks and responsibilities in a timely manner with appropriate attention to detail in routine situations.
    • Shows accountability and reliability to own obligations (e.g., prepares and actively engages in small group discussion)
    • Demonstrates awareness of ethical norms and a commitment to ethical behavior
    • May attempt to circumvent rules for tasks perceived to be of minor importance; May have intermittent lapses in accountability for responsibilities
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Analyzes complex situations using ethical principles. Recognizes need to seek help in managing and resolving complex ethical situations
    • Recognizes situations that may trigger professionalism lapses and intervenes to prevent lapses in self and others
    • Performs tasks and responsibilities in a timely manner with appropriate attention to detail
    • Shows accountability and reliability to own obligations
    • Applies sound ethical reasoning in interactions with colleagues, patients, and others; Adheres to ethical norms and principles
    • Forthright if unable to complete assigned tasks; Fully transparent about conflicts of obligation and/or any “near-misses” or errors made
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Recognizes and utilizes appropriate resources for managing and resolving ethical dilemmas as needed. (e.g., ethics consultations, literature review, risk management/legal consultation)
    • Anticipates lapse and consistently applies strategies to avoid it
    • Performs tasks and responsibilities in a timely manner with appropriate attention to detail in complex or stressful situations; proactively implements strategies to ensure that the needs of patients, teams, and systems are met
    • Accountable and accessible to patients and colleagues (e.g., consistently follows-through on patient care responsibilities, communicates findings to patients and team)
    • Applies sound ethical reasoning in interactions with colleagues, patients, and others; Consistently adheres to ethical norms and principles
    • Actively encourages honesty and accountability among self and others, including reporting of lapses in self and others
• PB 5.2/HH 7.4 Demonstrate cultural humility

Competency Domain 6. Systems-Based Practice

Demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context and system of health care and public health, as well as the ability to call effectively on other resources in the system to provide optimal health care.

• SBP 6.1/ICS 4.3 Collaborate as a member of a team, including members of one's profession or interprofessional teams (EPA 9)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • See ICS 4.3 above
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • See ICS 4.3 above
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • See ICS 4.3 above
• SBP 6.2 Incorporate considerations of value-based care in decisions about patients and/or populations
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Awareness of the factors that compose value-based care (e.g., quality, cost, and cost-conscious care)
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Applies components of value-based care (e.g., quality, cost, and cost-conscious care) to clinical decision making with prompting
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Consistently applies best evidence, patient-preferences, and cost factors in decision making
• SBP 6.3 Identify system failures and contribute to a culture of safety and improvement (EPA 13)
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Demonstrates knowledge of common patient safety events
    • Demonstrates knowledge of basic quality improvement methodologies and metrics
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Identifies system factors that lead to patient safety events
    • Participates in local quality improvement initiatives (modification of wording: identify gaps and initiative a plan)
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Conducts analysis of patient safety events and offers error prevention strategies (simulated or actual)
    • Demonstrates the skills required to identify, develop, implement, and analyze a quality improvement project
• SBP 6.4/HH 7.1 Analyze social determinants of health and other sociocultural factors affecting the health outcomes of patients, populations and communities
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Awareness of the larger social context and its impact on health
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Frequently applies social determinants of health, healthcare disparities, and public and population health to patient care decisions
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Consistently applies social determinants of health, healthcare disparities, and public and population health to patient care decisions; Applies basic strategies for population health management

Competency Domain 7. Health Humanities

Approach patients as whole persons, demonstrating compassion, humility, and respect.

• HH 7.1/SBP 6.4 Analyze social determinants of health and other sociocultural factors affecting the health outcomes of patients, populations and communities
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • See SBP 6.4 above
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • See SBP 6.4 above
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • See SBP 6.4 above
• HH 7.2/PB 5.1 Act with honesty, integrity, accountability, reliability self-regulation, and emotional awareness, adhering to ethical norms and principles for the practice of medicine
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • See PB 5.1 above
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • See PB 5.1 above
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • See PB 5.1 above
• HH 7.3 Employ humanities tools and concepts
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • Identifies humanities tools and concepts
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • Occasionally uses humanities tools and concepts in patient care
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • Consistently uses humanities tools and concepts in patient care
• HH 7.4/PB 5.2 Demonstrate cultural humility
  • Phase I: Post basic sciences
    • See PB 5.2 above
  • Phase II: Post clerkships
    • See PB 5.2 above
  • Phase III: Graduation
    • See PB 5.2 above

Note: The PSCOM competencies/subcompetencies and milestones were informed by the ACGME Domains of Competence, Physician Competency Domains, ACGME Harmonized Milestones, AAMC Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs), AAMC Core Competency for Entering Medical Students, and the Foundational Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Education.

References:

• AAMC, AACOM, ACGME. Foundational Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Education. AAMC, AACOM, ACGME; 2024.
• Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education. Outcomes Project. http://www.acgme.org/outcome/comp/compFull.asp. [No longer available.] Published 1999. Accessed March 30, 2013.
• Andolsek, Kathryn M., et al. Introduction to the Milestones 2.0: Assessment, Implementation, and Clinical Competency Committees Supplement. Journal of Graduate Medical Education, vol. 13, no. 2s, 1 Apr. 2021, pp. 1–4, https://doi.org/10.4300/jgme-d-21-00298.1. Accessed 15 June 2023.
• Edgar L, Roberts S, Holmboe E. Milestones 2.0: A step forward. J Grad Med Educ. 2018;10:367–369.
• Englander, Robert, et al. Toward a Common Taxonomy of Competency Domains for the Health Professions and Competencies for Physicians. Academic Medicine, vol. 88, no. 8, Aug. 2013, pp. 1088–1094, https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0b013e31829a3b2b. Accessed 16 June 2023.
• Foundational Competencies for Undergraduate Medical Education. Association of American Medical Colleges, https://cloud.email.aamc.org/UME-Competencies-AAMC-AACOM-ACGME Accessed 15 June 2023.
• Obeso V, Brown D, Aiyer M, Barron B, Bull J, Carter T, Emery M, Gillespie C, Hormann M, Hyderi A, Lupi C, Schwartz M, Uthman M, Vasilevskis EE, Yingling S, Phillipi C, eds.; for Core EPAs for Entering Residency Pilot Program. Toolkits for the 13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency. Washington, DC: Association of American Medical Colleges; 2017.

Authorized: Kevin Black, M.D. Interim Vice Dean for Educational Affairs

Approved: Committee for Undergraduate Medical Education (CUMED)

Date Reviewed: April 17, 2025

Most Recent Changes: February 19, 2026; milestones added.

Revision History: April 17, 2025; Consolidated or deleted a subcompetencies, made slight changes to a few others.

Date Approved: April 17, 2025

Date Published: February 19, 2026

Policy's Initial Date: October 26, 2015

Content Reviewers and Contributors:

• Committee for Undergraduate Medical Education (CUMED)
• Associate Dean for Evaluation and Assessment
• Associate Dean for Medical Education

Accreditation

The Penn State College of Medicine's MD Program is fully accredited by the Liaison Committee on Medical Education (LCME), the national accreditation authority for medical education programs leading to the MD degree in the United States and Canada.

LCME accreditation is a peer-reviewed process of quality assurance that determines whether the medical education program meets established standards. To achieve and maintain accreditation, a program leading to the MD degree in the United States and Canada must meet the LCME accreditation standards. Accreditation status is reviewed by a team of site visitors every eight years. Penn State College of Medicine was reviewed in February 2026.

Professional Licensure/Certification

Many U.S. states and territories require professional licensure/certification to be employed. If you plan to pursue employment in a licensed profession after completing this program, please visit the Professional Licensure/Certification Disclosures by State interactive map.

Contact

MD Program
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Hershey, PA 17033

717-531-8755

StudentAdmissions@pennstatehealth.psu.edu