St. Agnes Hospital in Baltimore, MD was established more than 150 years ago by the Daughters of Charity to meet the health needs of the poor. As a Catholic healthcare ministry and member of Ascension Health, its mission is to sustain and improve the lives of the individuals and communities it serves. St. Agnes Hospital is a 251-bed, full-service teaching hospital with residency programs in a number of medical and surgical specialties.
The hospital's Department of Medicine has been involved in the education of international medical students since February 1995. It offers two major educational programs, including core rotations in Internal Medicine and Surgery (12 weeks) and electives in Medical and Surgical subspecialties (4 weeks).
Internal Medicine Core Rotation
The Internal Medicine core rotations provides medical students with the opportunity to gain basic medical knowledge, learn technical skills, and develop professional attitudes that are needed to care compassionately for adult patients with medical disorders. At the present time, the program curriculum is directed towards the care of acutely ill patients who are hospitalized. Its goal is to enable medical students to eventually engage in the independent study of medicine after becoming competent in the following areas that are needed to practice Internal Medicine in the best possible manner.
- Performance of an accurate history and physical examination
- Appropriate diagnostic decision making that is performed after generating a problem list
- Formulating a differential diagnosis
- Ability to present findings found both orally and in a written document to medical colleagues
- Therapeutic decision making after a differential diagnosis is set forth that takes into account cost/benefit analysis
- Interpretation of blood/urine test results
- Appreciation of the patient/doctor relationship (bio-ethics, understanding of advanced directive, informed consent, etc.)
Surgery Core Rotation
Students who complete the Surgery core rotation at St. Agnes Hospital have the opportunity to work with fellow classmates as well as students from other medical schools. Students will be responsible for performing as an active member of the surgical team. This rotation is like any other human endeavor: what you get out of it depends on what you put in! It will be time consuming and demanding. The general objectives of the Surgery core rotation include:
- Students will acquire the knowledge and ability to recognize and assist in the treatment of disease during which surgery may play a role.
- Students will gain experience in the pre-, intra-, and post-operative care of various surgical diseases.
- Students will understand and apply specific surgical protocol in the operating room.
- Students will diagnose, evaluate, and treat patients with surgical conditions.
