First-year JMC Students Prepare to See Patients in Physician Offices and Jefferson Hospital

Jefferson recently helped prepare first-year Medical College students for their initial experience seeing patients at physician offices and in the hospital.

The students spent several hours learning some of the basic skills they'll need for this important occasion from members of the hospital's nursing staff.

The students rotated to "skills stations" dealing with: Universal Precautions (ways to prevent the spread of infection in the hospital, such as handwashing) and measuring blood pressure, temperature, pulse and respiration. After watching videotapes and demonstrations by the nurses, students paired off to try out their newly gained techniques on one another.

Sue Czarnecki, RN, MSN, surgical care program, coordinated the participation of Jefferson Hospital nurses: Roberta Barone, RN, BSN; Eleanor Fitzpatrick, RN, MSN; Theresa Tullos Goldmann, BSN, RN; Kathleen Higgins, RN, MSN; Bill Hopkins, MEd, RN; Sean McGrath, BSN, RN; Donna Orapallo, RN, and Donna Ronner, RN, BSN.

Sylvia K. Fields, EdD, director of generalist physician curriculum development, Jefferson Medical College (JMC), and course coordinator Mitchell J. Cohen, MD, clinical associate professor, psychiatry and human behavior, JMC, arranged this event to prepare students for the various clinical experiences they'll encounter within the new first-year course "The Doctor in Health and Illness: Concepts and Practice of Comprehensive Medicine."

A student study guide was prepared by Ms. Czarnecki and Dr. Fields, with the help of Sheila A. Murphey, MD, clinical associate professor of medicine and infection control officer, and James A. Spath Jr., PhD, professor of physiology.