The Societies Program is a four-year, integrated program initiated 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
• Provide an ongoing support system that emphasis 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. 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 a five Society Mentors, one of whom also serves as the Society Head. Each Society Mentor is responsible for five or six students in each year of medical school. Thus, when the program is fully established after four years, each Society will contain approximately 110 students from all four years of medical school.

The Society Groups will meet weekly with their mentor for the first two years of medical school and thus become well-acquainted with each other. You will continue to interact with your Society Mentor during years three and four; this part of the Societies Program is under development. In addition to interacting with 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 will, when possible, be complementary to and integrate 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 will be 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 each Basic Science Block. 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, University Physicians 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 after your patient encounter, at the time the formal presentation is given.

Personal and Professional Development Groups
Personal and Professional Development Groups (PPD) are small group sessions that provide students with a safe forum to discuss issues related to medical professionalism. These sessions occur periodically in place of your usual Societies activities. Professional Development Groups are confidential and non-evaluative; however, attendance is required. During these sessions the Medical Professionalism curriculum will be taught and discussed in small groups. Personal and Professional Development sessions also provide an opportunity to seek out and provide support from/for your peers. In order to encourage diversity of opinion and protect the non-evaluative nature of the sessions, the PPD Mentor will be different from your regular Society Group Mentor; however, this Mentor will be consistently with your group for these sessions.

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 and Society Head)
Janet Campion, MD; Internal Medicine and Geriatrics
Lisa Chan, MD; Emergency Medicine
Lane Johnson, MD; Family and Community Medicine
William Marshall, MD; Pediatrics

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
William Madden, MD; Pediatrics
Maria Bishop, MD; Internal Medicine and Oncology
Craig McClure, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Ronald Pust, MD; Family and Community Medicine
Kevin Reilly, MD; Emergency Medicine

Manzanita
Paul Gordon, MD; Family and Community Medicine (Society Head)
Colleen Cagno, MD; Family and Community Medicine
James Kerwin, MD; Family and Community Medicine
John Bloom, MD; Internal Medicine and Pulmonary
Amy Waer, MD; Surgery

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
Andrea Lopez, Societies Program
Angelica Gomez, Patient Interview Coordinator
Kathy Heyl, Patient Interview Coordinator
Elizabeth Leko, Doctor and Patient Course
Vicky Holguin, Doctor and Patient Course
Carol Spamer, Doctor and Patient Course

Evaluation within the Societies Program and the Doctor & Patient course will be formative (informal) and summative (formal). Multiple evaluation tools will be used, including peer evaluation. You will have multiple opportunities for formative evaluation from your Society Mentor during the labs and beside 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.

All of the activities within the Societies Program will be Pass/Fail. The Doctor & Patient course will use the Observed Structured Clinical Evaluation (OSCE) as the final exam each year. 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 purposes of the portfolio are:

• 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 be a tool to 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.

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 that your absence or tardiness is last moment. Additional contact information is available on the Societies Program web site.

Professional attire is expected when you are interacting with patients and Standardized Patients/Patient Instructors in the Societies Program. Please note that you will be meeting a patient during the first day of medical school. Examples of appropriate dress for men include a button down shirt, pants (not jeans), socks and shoes. Examples of appropriate dress for women include a shirt or blouse (not low cut or with spaghetti straps, etc.), pants (not jeans), skirts or dresses (knee length or longer). For either sex, underwear and/or midriffs cannot be visible and shoes must be closed-toe. A white medical coat is optional.

For sessions conducted at the Southern AZ VA Healthcare System and at UPH – 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 will be available at each site.

Our program is a new one. 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.