Chicago Medical School Competencies and Objectives

2025-2026 Academic Year 

1. Patient Care: Provide patient-centered care that is compassionate, appropriate, and effective for the treatment of health problems and the promotion of health. Specifically, students must:  
   • 1.1 Perform all medical, diagnostic, and surgical procedures considered essential for the area of practice.
   • 1.2 Gather essential and accurate information about patients and their conditions through history-taking, physical examination, and the use of laboratory data, imaging, and other tests.
   • 1.3 Organize and prioritize responsibilities to provide care that is safe, effective, and efficient.
   • 1.4 Interpret laboratory data, imaging studies, and other tests required for the area of practice.
   • 1.5 Develop and carry out patient management plans.      
   • 1.6 Provide appropriate referral of patients including ensuring continuity of care throughout transitions between providers or settings and following up on patient progress and outcomes.
2. Knowledge for Practice: Demonstrate knowledge of established and evolving biomedical, clinical, epidemiological and social-behavioral sciences, as well as the application of this knowledge to patient care. Specifically, students must:
   • 2.1 Apply established and emerging bio-physical scientific principles fundamental to health care for patients and populations.
   • 2.2 Apply established and emerging principles of clinical sciences to diagnostic and therapeutic decision-making, clinical problem-solving, and other aspects of evidence-based health care.
   • 2.3 Apply principles of epidemiological sciences to the identification of health problems, risk factors, treatment strategies, resources, disease prevention and health maintenance and promotion efforts for individual patients and/or populations of patients to improve care.
   • 2.4 Apply principles of social-behavioral sciences to provision of patient care, including assessment of the impact of psychosocial and cultural influences on health, disease, care-seeking, care compliance, and barriers to and attitudes toward care.
3. Practice-Based Learning and Improvement: Demonstrate the ability to investigate and evaluate one’s care of patients, to appraise and assimilate scientific evidence, and to continuously improve patient care based on constant self-evaluation and life-long learning. Specifically, students must:
   • 3.1 Identify strengths, deficiencies, and/or gaps in one’s knowledge, skill and/or attitudes, set learning goals, and perform appropriate help seeking behaviors and learning activities to improve performance.
   • 3.2 Systematically analyze practice using quality improvement methods.
   • 3.3 Incorporate feedback into daily practice.
   • 3.4 Demonstrate an investigative and analytical approach to clinical decision making by using technology to find current studies, new evidence, guidelines, technologies, and products related to patient health problems to improve outcomes.
   • 3.5 Participate in the counseling and education of patients, families, students, trainees, peers and other health care professionals to enable shared decision making.
   • 3.6 Continually identify and analyze new knowledge, guidelines, standards, technologies, products, or services that have been demonstrated to improve outcomes. 
4. Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Demonstrate interpersonal and communication skills that result in the effective exchange of information and collaboration with patients, their families, and health professionals. Specifically, students must:
   • 4.1 Communicate effectively with patients, families, and the public, as appropriate, across a broad range of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
   • 4.2 Communicate effectively with colleagues within one's profession or specialty, other health professionals, and health related agencies.
   • 4.3 Acquire an understanding of a consultative role to other health professionals.
   • 4.4 Maintain comprehensive, timely, and legible medical records.
   • 4.5 Demonstrate sensitivity, honesty, and compassion in difficult conversations, including those about death, end of life, adverse events, bad news, disclosure of errors, and other sensitive topics.
   • 4.6 Demonstrate insight and understanding about emotions and human responses to emotions that allow one to develop and manage interpersonal interactions.
5. Professionalism: Demonstrate a commitment to carrying out professional responsibilities and an adherence to ethical principles. Specifically, students must:
   • 5.1 Demonstrate compassion, integrity, respect for patients, and a commitment to ethical principles including but not limited to autonomy, confidentiality, informed consent, and the provision of appropriate patient care.
   • 5.2 Demonstrate responsiveness to patient needs that supersedes self-interest.
   • 5.3 Demonstrate accountability to patients and the profession.
   • 5.4 Reflect on one's own values, culture, and beliefs and demonstrate sensitivity and responsiveness to a diverse patient population, including but not limited to diversity in gender, age, culture, race, religion, disabilities, and sexual orientation.
6. Systems-Based Practice: Demonstrate an awareness of and responsiveness to the larger context and system of health care, as well as the ability to call effectively on other resources in the system to provide optimal health care. Specifically, students must: 
   • 6.1 Work effectively in various health care delivery settings and systems.
   • 6.2 Coordinate patient care within the health care system relevant to one's role.
   • 6.3 Incorporate considerations of high-value care in patient and/or population-based care.
   • 6.4 Advocate for quality patient care and optimal patient care systems.
   • 6.5 Participate in identifying system errors and implementing potential systems solutions.
7. Interprofessional Collaboration: Demonstrate the ability to engage in an interprofessional team in a manner that optimizes safe, effective patient- and population-centered care. Specifically, students must:
   • 7.1 Work with other health professionals as a member or leader of a health care team to establish and maintain a climate of mutual respect, shared values, dignity, diversity, ethical integrity, and trust.
   • 7.2 Use the knowledge of one’s own role and the roles of other health professionals to appropriately assess and address the health care needs and advance the health of the patients and populations served.
   • 7.3 Communicate with patients, families, communities and other health professionals in a responsive and responsible manner that supports a team approach to the maintenance of health and the treatment of disease in individual patients and populations.
   • 7.4 Participate in different team roles to establish, develop, and continuously enhance principles of team dynamics within interprofessional teams to plan, deliver and evaluate patient- and population-centered care and population health programs and policies that are safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable. 
8. Personal and Professional Development: Demonstrate the qualities required to sustain lifelong personal and professional growth. Specifically, students must:
   • 8.1 Demonstrate healthy coping mechanisms, management of conflict and capacity to manage change between professional and personal responsibilities.
   • 8.2 Provide leadership skills that enhance team functioning; the learning environment, and/or the health care delivery system.