User's Guide

"THREADS" Across the Four Components
of the FMCR Project Resource

ACGME COMPETENCIES

The FMCR resource is divided into four distinct components:

• COLLABORATIVE CURRICULUM PROJECT (PRECLERKSHIP) (developed collaboratively by family medicine, internal medicine and pediatrics) aimed at education of all preclerkship students
• FAMILY MEDICINE CLERKSHIP, aimed at education of all students through the family medicine clerkship
• POST CLERKSHIP, aimed at education of all students in the post-clerkship year with added emphasis on students bound for family medicine residencies
• SPECIAL TOPICS, aimed at all students across the continuum of medical education.   Topics include: End-of-Life and Palliative Care, Geriatrics, Genetics, Healthy People 2010, Informatics, Mental Health, Oral Health and Substance Abuse.

All four components of the resource are integrated through a common theoretical framework. The suggested educational goals and objectives for teaching within the resources of all four components are aligned within the six, largely clinically focused, competencies for residency training which have been defined by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).    This theoretical framework, within the ACGME competencies, provides for: a) viewing education of medical students along a continuum which continues after graduation into residency training; and b)   defining "threads" which are interwoven throughout the resource.   For each resource, competencies for student education are defined within these six areas addressed by the ACGME:

THREADS through ACGME content areas are interwoven into all resources:

• Patient Care
• Medical Knowledge
• Interpersonal and Communication Skills
• Professionalism
• Practice-based Learning and Improvement (PBLI )
• Systems-based Practice

AREAS FOR GREATER EMPHASIS

The Collaborative Curriculum Project (CCP) within the FMCR Project developed a resource aimed at leadership in medical schools which stresses areas for greater emphasis in the education of all students prior to entering the core clerkships.   These areas were independently derived by the CCP but they are also closely aligned with the content areas addressed by the ACGME.  

Someone wishing to continue these threads of greater emphasis beyond the preclerkship education of students can then look within the ACMGE competencies addressed in the Family Medicine Clerkship, Post-clerkship, and Special Topic resources for how to continue these threads of greater emphasis over the entire continuum of medical education.    A comparison of the Areas of Greater Emphasis and the ACMGE competency areas is provided in the box below to show how to identify the continuing threads across the four components of the resource.

In the left-hand column are the Areas for Greater Emphasis defined by the CCP for preclerkship education of all medical students. All of the ACGME competencies in the right-hand column are continued from the preclerkship level resources on into the family medicine clerkship, post-clerkship and special topic resources. Therefore, for example, if one wishes to emphasize the thread of probabilistic thinking throughout the four-year curriculum, one can find this contained within the CCP's Areas for Greater Emphasis document and within the Medical Knowledge and Practice-based Learning and Improvement (PBLI) competencies described throughout all of the resources within the other three components of the FMCR Project resource (Family Medicine Clerkship, Post Clerkship and Special Topic resource components).

AREAS OF GREATER EMPHASIS and ACGME COMPETENCIES

For questions or comments, please contact Webmaster or Ardis Davis

This page last updated October 15, 2005