Foundations of Physician Responsibility 4

School of Medicine

Foundations of Physician Responsibility (FPR) 4 is the capstone course in the FPR curriculum, designed to consolidate and extend students' clinical, professional, and systems-based skills as they prepare for residency. It emphasizes refining advanced clinical skills, leadership, and systems thinking in diverse contexts. Building on prior coursework, FPR4 enhances hypothesis-based history-taking, physical exams, clinical reasoning, and high-stakes communication. Students strengthen skills for safe, patient-centered care, including collaboration, handoffs, difficult conversations, shared decision-making, conflict resolution, and leadership. The course also deepens understanding of health care's structural, financial, and policy aspects, analyzing how insurance and reimbursement affect patient experience, decision-making, and system performance. Students evaluate value, costs, quality, and equity, and assess the strengths and limitations of the U.S. health system, including the ACA, focusing on reforms and incentives shaping health care. The course continues to promote reflective practice, professional identity development, and physician well-being through structured self-reflection, mentoring, and peer discussion. Students further enhance self-management abilities and healthy coping strategies for dealing with ambiguity, medical errors, ethical dilemmas, and the emotional challenges of clinical practice. Technology is utilized to support clinical decision-making, workflow efficiency, evidence-based practice, and personalized learning in preparation for lifelong professional growth. Curricular experiences occur in three primary formats: (1) Two required Immersion Weeks primarily focused on residency readiness, and economics and health policy; (2) FPR: Self sessions on select Monday afternoons with college mentors, self enrolled alongside Advanced Clinical Experiences, Advanced Electives, Sub Internships, Research Immersion, or Flex Months; and (3) Clinical Skills Anchors (CSAs) on select Tuesday afternoons, emphasizing advanced simulations, systems based scenarios, and complex communication and leadership challenges.