Teaching patient wellness to first-year medical students: the impact on future ability to perform the history of present illness

Objectives Curriculum innovations to improve clinical skills have been impl emented at many American medical schools. A current curricular change at th e University of Connecticut School of Medicine involves teaching wellness t o students in the first year rather than the more traditional focus on dise ase processes. It is unknown, however, if focusing on wellness detracts fro m students' future ability to perform the history of present illness (HPI) which requires students to focus on disease processes. Design The current study examined this issue by comparing two cohorts' clin ical skills (n=156), with one class participating in a traditional curricul um during their first year and the other in a revised curriculum teaching w ellness during the first year. Each class was evaluated at the beginning of their second year to determine their level of clinical competence. Setting University of Connecticut School of Medicine Subjects Second-year medical students. Results Analyses suggested that teaching wellness did not detract from futu re ability to perform an HPI, and in fact students taught wellness had sign ificantly higher history-taking scores. Conclusions Curricular innovations which stress wellness and prevention ear ly in medical education do not detract from and may enhance students' abili ty to perform the history of present illness later during medical training.