Fourth-Year Medical Student Care Transitions Curriculum
Emory University School of Medicine
The Emory Care Transitions curriculum is a monthlong module directed toward third or fourth year medical students, which makes students aware of the important issues surrounding this topic, and teaches students valuable skills, such as the preparation of discharge summaries.
Upon completion of the curriculum, students will be able to:
- Enumerate and discuss the discharge options available in a particular case scenario;
- Write a complete discharge summary, given a patient being discharged from the hospital; and
- Communicate the elements of a safe discharge plan, including a medication list and follow-up plans.
In order to achieve the educational objectives, the module is divided into three parts.
- Part I: Didactic sessions on the most important issues surrounding care transitions, followed by discussion of a hypothetical case, which is presented through two discharge summaries. The documents entitled "Care Transitions Case for Discussion" and "Care Transitions Slide Presentation" belong to this section.
- Part II: A tutorial on the preparation of discharge summaries, which students can use to prepare their own discharge summary, for one of their own patients. The documents "Discharge Summary Tutorial" and "Discharge Summary Template" are part of this section.
- Part III: Students will perform a post-discharge phone call for one of their patients, using a checklist from the Society of Hospital Medicine. "Safe Discharge Checklist" and "Post Discharge Call" are used for this part.
The course consists of activities involving direct patient care, classroom lectures and discussion, as well as online lectures and collaboration. For online learning activities, students and faculty members collaborate using Blackboard educational software. For all three of the above activities, students discuss their work with their classmates using Blackboard software. This module could alternatively be taught with up to four face-to-face small group sessions, instead of using online collaboration.
One unique aspect to the curriculum is that it is delivered through in-person and online learning activities. Students meet with the instructor in person at the beginning and at the end of the curriculum, with intervening learning activities performed through online tutorials and collaboration using Blackboard educational software. Alternatively, the course could be delivered all in person, with up to four face-to-face sessions.