OMS Years I & II

Pre-Clinical Curriculum – OMS Years I & II

For the first two years of the osteopathic medical education, ARCOM utilizes a blended, “helix” curriculum that features a variety of learning modalities to prepare its students to meet the competencies established by the AOA and COCA, to acquire the knowledge and skills expected of a graduate osteopathic physician, and to develop the tools required to become a life-long learner and contributor to the expansion of medical knowledge and patient health. The curriculum seeks to provide the opportunity for students to develop the level of professional and ethical standards and behaviors expected of osteopathic physicians in addition to mastery of the medical knowledge and skills required of a graduate osteopathic physician. An emphasis on active learning and graduated student responsibility for their education and professional development is fostered through a variety of learning experiences, including classroom presentations and application exercises, laboratory sessions, small group and team-based learning activities, near-peer instruction, the use of standardized patients and patient simulators, clinical experiences, and self-directed independent study. The entirety of the educational experience at ARCOM aims to encourage students to develop a pattern of individual responsibility and capacity for life-long learning and growth as competent, patient-centered, holistic osteopathic physicians.

The integrated helix of the pre-clinical curriculum consists of three longitudinal “core elements” of learning: (1) Osteopathic Principles and Practice (OPP), (2) Foundations of Osteopathic Patient Care (FOPC), and (3) Biomedical Essentials of Comprehensive Osteopathic Medicine (BECOM). Each of these core elements run throughout the first two years of the curriculum, and the contemporaneous learning in each of these core elements is integrated, interrelated, complementary, and revisited.  ARCOM desires to create a culture of informed inquiry. The most valuable learning experiences are motivated by a rational recognition of the “need to know and grow.” The development of problem solving skills, the application of inductive and deductive reasoning, and a thoughtful, intentional process of clinical reasoning, which is introduced early in each of the three core elements, is woven throughout the remainder of the preclinical curriculum.