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Contact Information:


Sanford School of Medicine The University of South Dakota
1400 West 22nd Street
Sioux Falls, SD 57105
phone: 605-357-1300
fax: 605-357-1311

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Last Modified: 08/27/07

Yankton Model Campus Philosophy

Program Overview

...A response to recommendations for change in medical student education to better match the needs of today's society. That is... to produce primary care physicians oriented to serve their community.

This unique, innovative program represents a dramatic departure from the standard required third year clerkships at the University of South Dakota School of Medicine.

The Yankton Model Program delivers an educational program which stresses continuity of care, is ambulatory-based, problem-oriented, student-centered, and emphasizes community involvement. The entire twelve months of the required third year is centered at an ambulatory clinic.

The student is introduced to patients and continues to follow those patients throughout the year in the Yankton Medical Clinic, at home, and when admitted to Sacred Heart Hospital. This provides a true continuity experience for the students and orients their education toward primary care, as the students are responsible to assure provision of the patient's total health care needs.

Students evaluate patients with medical and social problems which serve as a stimulus for a problem-oriented education. These health and social problems are the focus of small group discussions through case presentations by the students, where all group members actively pursue learning issues relative to that case. Small group discussion, based on problem-oriented learning, is a key component to the educational success of this program. Since the student is responsible for the method and pace to solve the objectives of the clerkship and the patient problems, the education is a student-centered/self-education program.

Philosophy

The philosophy for the Yankton Model Program is to deliver an educational experience which is ambulatory based, represents a continuity experience, is problem-based and student centered.

This philosophy is to be implemented by locating the entire twelve months of the undergraduate medical education junior year at an ambulatory center. In the center, students will be assigned to a variety of clinics which represent the specialties of Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics, Surgery and Psychiatry. The students will be assigned to the specialty clinic on a daily basis and will be introduced to patients in the clinic (new patients and returns) and continue to follow those patients during hospitalizations and clinic return visits throughout the year in order to provide a continuity experience. A specific responsibility is for the student to be the coordinator for the patient's health needs.

The student will not be "on" a given specialty a specific number of weeks; but indeed, will be on all primary care "specialties" throughout the year. The student will be expected to achieve all the objectives of the current junior clerkships during the one year period, but will progress at his/her own interest and pace to achieve those objectives throughout the year. The course will therefore, be a student centered education; that is, the student will decide how and when to achieve the various objectives.

Students will be evaluating real patients with real medical and social problems which will serve as the stimulus for student learning a problem-based education. Problem-based learning is defined as using a problem as the stimulus for the student's learning. Steps include the identification of the problem, forming hypotheses as to cause or etiology of the problem (diagnosis), ranking the hypotheses, testing the hypotheses in the history and physical, and with laboratory tests, perhaps re-ranking the hypotheses and then developing a treatment plan for the best choice of hypotheses.

Evaluation will be ongoing throughout the year in order to assure the student input as to his/her performance weaknesses and strengths. 

Objectives

The objectives of the program are broken down into three areas: General Objectives, Junior Year Objectives, and Departmental Objectives.

General Objectives

• The ability to conduct scientific inquiry at an appropriate professional level
• The ability to communicate effectively both orally and in writing at the professional level
• The ability to use information technology and appropriate searching and shifting strategies so as to keep up with the growing knowledge base
• A sense of ethical responsibility and responsibilities to society
• The ability to teach effectively to others
• The fundamental understanding of the clinical context in application of science

Junior Year Objectives

The student will possess the knowledge to identify persons at risk for common and important health problems and to apply appropriate preventive measures including screening, education, and other forms of risk reduction

The student will be able to diagnose and manage common and important health problems

The student will be able to explain the current principles of the etiology of common and important health problems

The student will be able to demonstrate a knowledge of the pathophysiology of common and important health problems

The student will be able to diagnose common and important health problems. This will require skills necessary

• To conduct a medical interview
• To obtain an appropriate history
• To conduct an appropriate physical examination
• To develop an appropriate hypothesis
• To order appropriate diagnostic and laboratory investigation to confirm the tentative hypothesis

Community Responsibility

Awareness of community responsibility is introduced to each student through the proposal and implementation of their own community project.  Community projects are presented annually to the academic community and are archived on the SSOM Medical Education web site.  This project in turn introduces the community to the Yankton Model Program and Sanford School of Medicine of The University of South Dakota.

For More Information 

Contact the program coordinators 
The Yankton Model Program
SSOM Yankton Campus
1000 West 4th Street
Yankton, South Dakota 57078
1-800-952-3612 

Read about the Yankton Model Program:

Expanding the Concept of Problem-Based Learning to Prospective Medical Students.  Larson BH and Gilmore HT. Academic Medicine 69(5) May 1994: 421-422

Preparing Faculty Members for Problem Based, Small Group Learning Encounters. Gilmore HT. South Dakota Journal of Medicine February 1995: 57-60

South Dakota's Third-year Program of Integrated Clerkships in Ambulatory-care Settings.  Hansen LA and Talley RC. Academic Medicine 67(12) December 1992: 817-819

The Yankton Model Program.  Hansen LA, Brandt S, Christopherson C, Gilmore HT et al. South Dakota Journal of Medicine. April 1992: 103-107