The Societies Program is a four-year, integrated program initiated in 2006 to teach clinical skills and provide longitudinal clinical mentoring for the students at the College of Medicine.

The Societies Program has been developed to enhance your medical school experience in the following ways:

• Early instruction, from the very first day, in the development of fundamental clinical skills including communication, taking a medical history, and the physical examination of patients
• Early introduction to what it means to be a medical professional and the importance of professionalism in the practice of medicine
• Provision of an ongoing support system that emphasizes both peer support and the support of dedicated medical school faculty

The Societies Program has been developed by the University of Arizona College of Medicine because the College believes that the above elements are essential components of a successful educational experience.

Similar programs have been and are being developed in other medical schools in the United States. The generic term for these programs is "Learning Communities". We have combined what we believe is the best of other programs with the unique attributes that define us as an institution.

The class has been divided into four Societies. The Societies are named after flora indigenous to Arizona, and each has an associated color:

• Agave (Blue)
• Acacia (Yellow)
• Cholla (Green)
• Manzanita (Red)

Each Society has five Society Mentors. Each Society Mentor is responsible for five to six students in each year of medical school. Thus, each Society contains approximately 110 students from all four years of medical school.

The Society Groups meet weekly with their mentor for the first two years of medical school for a variety of clinical experiences and thus become well-acquainted with each other. You will continue to interact with your Society Mentor during year three and year four of medical school. In addition to your Society Mentor, it is our hope that you will come to know other faculty in the Societies Program. Additionally, a Mentor-at-Large will fill in during your Mentor's absences. The weekly sessions are generally scheduled from 1 to 5 PM.

The Societies Program is responsible for administrating the course Doctor & Patient: Integrating the Art and Science of Medicine. This course provides objective evaluation of your clinical skills and assures your appropriate professional development during the first two years of medical school.

The content of the Societies Program and the Doctor & Patient course is, when possible, complementary to and integrated with the material presented in each curricular block of years 1 and 2.

Foundations block
The structure for the Societies Program during the Foundations Block is different from that of the rest of the first two years. During the weekly sessions in Foundations, your Society Mentor will teach you how to conduct a basic medical history and perform a normal physical exam. This part of the course will serve as fundamental knowledge which you will practice and build on for the remaining years of medical school.

Other Blocks
During the remaining blocks of the first and second years, three distinct activities will occur within the Societies Program: Clinical Labs; Bedside Teaching Sessions; and Personal & Professional Development Sessions. These activities are described below in general terms. Detailed descriptions and objectives are provided in ArizonaMed.

Clinical Labs
Labs will occur one or two times within most Basic Science Blocks. During the labs, you will be taught clinical thinking skills, advanced medical history taking skills and advanced/abnormal physical examination skills that correlate with the current block. Patient Instructors, Standardized Patients and assigned reading sets will be utilized.

Bedside Teaching Sessions
These are the core activities of the Societies Program. In these sessions, your Mentor and Society Group will go to the bedside for an interactive teaching session. We utilize our main teaching hospitals to recruit patients for these sessions: University Medical Center, UA Healthcare-Kino Campus, and the Southern Arizona VA Healthcare System. During these sessions, one (Year 1) or two students (Year 2) perform a history and physical on a hospitalized patient, while their Society Mentor and a peer observe and give feedback. The student then gives an informal presentation of the case to the rest of the group. The students who did not perform the history and physical will have an opportunity to ask the patient questions and perform key aspects of the physical exam. Afterwards, the Mentor and students have a small group discussion regarding differential diagnosis, clinical thinking, evidence-based treatment, and other clinical topics related to the case. Finally, the student who performed the history and physical the preceding week will give a formal presentation of their patient. A typed history and physical is due one week after your patient encounter, at the time the formal presentation is given.

Personal and Professional Development Groups
Personal and Professional Development (PPD) sessions are group activities that provide students with a forum to discuss issues related to medical professionalism. These sessions occur periodically in place of your usual Societies activities. Personal and Professional Development sessions are non-evaluative; however, attendance is required. During these sessions the Medical Professionalism curriculum is taught and discussed in a large and/or small group format.

Swartz M. Textbook of Physical Diagnosis: History and Examination. 6th ed. Philadelphia: Saunders, 2010.

Tierney LM, Henderson M, Kraytman M. The Patient History: Evidence-Based Approach. New York: Lange Medical Books/McGraw-Hill, 2005. , AHSL Ready Ref/Reserve: WB 290 P298 2005; AHSL Electronic Resource

Please make an effort to review the required readings for each session, when assigned. We have found that students who do not make use of the readings are at a significant disadvantage during clinical labs, bedside sessions, and the OSCE.

The Society Mentors are among the College's most distinguished clinician-educators. All are active, respected clinicians who have been recognized for their teaching skills and have devoted much of their academic careers to medical education. The Mentors are very excited to participate in the Societies Program and look forward to helping students develop their full potential in medical school.

Your Society Mentor's responsibility is to teach you basic and advanced clinical skills rather than influence your choice of specialty. Society Mentors have been selected on the basis of their ability to assure you appropriate development of these skills. You will have other opportunities to interact with physicians who practice in specialties that you are interested in as a career choice.

The Societies and the Mentors are:

Agave
Kevin Moynahan, MD; Internal Medicine (Societies Program Director)
Marlon Guerrero, MD; Surgical Oncology
Lane Johnson, MD; Family and Community Medicine
William Marshall, MD; Pediatrics
Ashish Panchal, MD; Emergency Medicine

Acacia
Carlos Gonzales, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Patricia Lebensohn, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Arthur Sanders, MD; Emergency Medicine
Roxana Ursea, MD; Ophthalmology and Internal Medicine
James Warneke, MD; Surgery

Cholla
Maria Bishop, MD; Internal Medicine and Oncology
Wendi Kulin, MD; Neurology
Craig McClure, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Ronald Pust, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Violet Siwik, MD; Family and Community Medicine

Manzanita
Paul Gordon, MD; Family and Community Medicine (Director, Clinical & Professional Skills Education and Evaluation)
John Bloom, MD; Internal Medicine and Pulmonary
Colleen Cagno, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Randy Horwitz, MD; Integrative Medicine
Stephen Klotz, MD; Infectious Disease

Mentor-at-Large
Larry Moher, MD; Family and Community Medicine
William Adamas-Rappaport, MD; Surgery

Personal and Professional Development Program and Student Support
Larry Moher, MD; Family and Community Medicine
John Racy, MD; Psychiatry

Program Administration
Angelica Gomez, Patient Recruiter
Kathy Heyl, Patient Recruiter
Vicky Holguin, Doctor and Patient Course
Liz Leko, Doctor and Patient Course
Andrea Lopez, Societies Program
Carol Spamer, Doctor and Patient Course

Evaluation within the Societies Program and the Doctor & Patient course is both formative (informal) and summative (formal). Multiple evaluation tools are used, including peer evaluation. You will have many opportunities for formative evaluation from your Society Mentor during the Clinical Labs and Bedside Teaching Sessions. For summative evaluations, the competencies endorsed by the College will be used. Four-semester Developmental Benchmarks are used in your summative evaluations; you will participate in these evaluations in order to encourage self-reflection. The Benchmarks are available on ArizonaMed at http://arizonamed.medicine.arizona.edu/curriculum/societies/files/Developmental%20Benchmarks%2006-2010.pdf

All of the activities within the Societies Program are Pass/Fail. The Doctor & Patient course will use the Observed Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) as the final exam after year 2. This exam will give you and your Mentor an objective, standardized evaluation of your clinical skills. Like the rest of Societies activities, the OSCE will be graded as Pass/Fail.

Each of you will develop a learning portfolio through your participation in the Societies Program. The purpose of the portfolio is:

• To provide a repository for your written work (patient write-ups, reflective exercises, etc.)
• To allow you and your Society Mentor to track your progress
• To maintain a record of your Society evaluations

Your portfolio will help you assess your personal and professional growth. Your Mentor will periodically review your portfolio with you to help you identify your learning needs. You will have access to your portfolio at any time.

As a student in the Societies Program, your role is to begin to learn core medical skills. Professionalism will be stressed in all of your Societies Program experiences, including interactions with patients, peers, and medical personnel. Professionalism also applies to attendance and timeliness.

You are expected to read carefully the full text of the attendance policy and you will be held accountable for adherence to the policy. The full text of the attendance policy can be accessed at: http://epc.medicine.arizona.edu/content/tucson-attendance-policy

In brief, you are required to attend and remain for the duration of all small-group sessions including Cased-based Instruction sessions and Team Learning exercises, all sessions in which patients are present and all Interprofessional activities. You are also required to attend any other activity at which a faculty member has made attendance mandatory.

To request an excused absence from a mandatory activity or to request that an exam be rescheduled, you must contact the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and copy Dr. Gordon, on the email at least two weeks in advance unless due to an illness or emergency. Additionally, a student who misses any small group activity for any reason must notify his/her facilitator/Society mentor and small-group members in advance of such absence when possible.

In addition to the Attendance Policy above, please notify Andrea Lopez at 626-6505 (alopez@email.arizona.edu) if you are going to be late or absent for a session. Advance notice is appreciated. You may also contact your Mentor directly in the event your absence or tardiness is last moment.

Refer to the UA CoM Student Dress Guidelines in the Clinical Setting.

For sessions during Year 2 being conducted at the Southern AZ VA Healthcare System and at UA Healthcare-Kino Campus, car pooling is encouraged among the members of each Society group including your Society Mentor. Generally, it should only take one or two cars to transport one Society group of 5 or 6 students. Parking is available at each site.

Our program is one in continual evolution. Just as you have much to learn, so do we, as individuals and as a program. As members of your Society you are expected to help support the development of your peers and the program as a whole. By working together in a variety of settings - clinical, didactic, and small group - we believe the Societies Program will lay the foundation for your growth and development as physicians prepared to serve the greater community.