FLORIDA STATE UNIVERSITY MEDICAL STUDENTS TRAIN STATEWIDE

Florida State University's first-year medical students will be finishing out the academic year by training alongside primary care doctors around the state for three weeks in May.

The students have been assigned to work one-on-one with community physicians throughout Florida in a summer clinical practicum focusing on clinical and patient communication skills.

"The FSU College of Medicine has a unique mission - to train physicians who are responsive to community needs, especially through service to elder, rural, minority and underserved populations," said Curtis Stine, M.D., course director. "We're hopeful that this experience will help prepare students to serve these underserved patients."

A number of the Florida Area Health Education Centers, which organize community-based training for students in the health professions, coordinated the recruitment of participating physicians. Most of the students will be working in practices in which the patient population consists largely of one of the underserved groups identified in the medical school's mission.

During the three weeks, students will practice taking patients' medical histories, performing basic clinical exams and reporting their findings - skills they begin to acquire during the first year by working with local physicians in Tallahassee and in a simulated clinic on the FSU campus.