Foundational Years

Essential Principles of Medicine: This course for 1st year students focuses on the themes of Basic Science, Patient care and Physicianship.  The Unit for Patient Care and Physicianship includes case studies, patient presentations, lectures and small group teaching, and uses faculty drawn from both the Department of Psychiatry and the College as a whole.

Health, Illness and Disease (HID):  Students examine how various parts of the human body normally function, how they malfunction, how these malfunctions can be diagnosed and treated, and how society and the practice of medicine intersect and influence one another.    Faculty from the Department of Psychiatry participate in three Units of the course.

• Mental Status Exam Unit:  2nd year students role-play interactions between patients and physicians in order to learn the major components of the Mental Status Exam.  Psychiatry faculty present lectures and meet with students in small groups.
   
• Brain and Behavior Psychopathology Unit: 2nd year students convene in small groups to interview patient volunteers from the psychiatry inpatient units on the Westchester and Manhattan campuses.
   
• Brain and Behavior Problem Based Learning (PBL) Unit:  Lectures are presented on various topics and psychiatric disorders.  Small groups present and discuss three paper cases, and faculty members moderate discussion and facilitate the students’ intensive library research.