Competencies and learning objectives

The medical school faculty is embarking on a curriculum transformation plan, starting with Year 1 being implemented in July 2018. The Highways to Excellence curriculum develops more individualized educational experiences. The organ systems-based curriculum blends and reinforces basic sciences and clinical experiences from day one, integrating classroom, self-directed learning and small-group learning with clinical skills, cases, experience and training. The curriculum enables physicians-in-training to customize their studies, with time for electives and career choice exploration, including opportunities to focus on the health of underserved populations through community impact missions and partnerships.

Highways to Excellence Curriculum

This is the curriculum track for students who entered Wayne State University School of Medicine after June 2018. Learn more about the new Highways to Excellence Curriculum.

WSU SOM Curriculum

This is the curriculum track for students who entered Wayne State University School of Medicine before July 2018. Students who matriculated before the summer of 2018 may be enrolled in the WSU SOM Curriculum. New students cannot enter this track; it has been succeeded by the Highways to Excellence Curriculum track since July 2018.

Background Information

In 2013, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) synthesized over 150 competency lists from across medical education continuum, physician specialties and subspecialties, countries and healthcare professions to develop a list of common learner expectations utilized in the training of physicians and other health professionals: Physician Competency Reference Set (PCRS). These competencies define the desired outcomes across the continuum of education, training, and practice.

The AAMC also developed the 13 Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency (EPAs) that all entering residents should be expected to perform on day 1 of residency without direct supervision regardless of specialty choice (see Appendix 1). The EPAs provide the clinical context for the PCRS competencies. Each EPA can be mapped to the competencies that are critical to making an entrustment decision. More information about the EPAs and development of curriculum for the measurement of entrustment is available in the AAMC's Publication: Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency Curriculum Developers Guide .

In 2025, the AAMC the AAMC released new Foundational Competencies for UME – a more inclusive, current and aligned framework – which replaces the 2013 AAMC PCRS.

New Foundational Competencies

In 2016, Wayne State University School of Medicine analyzed the current institutional learning objectives and decided to revised its competency domains and related competencies for the program leading to the MD degree. As a result, the new AAMC domains of competency were assumed and many institutional competencies changed; in some areas, the previous WSUSOM competencies were maintained but mapped to a PCRS competency and in other areas the new PCRS competencies were adopted. The new domains and competencies are intended to be in line with the AAMC's PCRS and to map the competencies to the EPAs. WSUSOM Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum Management Committee approved the competency domains and competencies on 6/8/2016; they were instituted beginning with the 2016-2017 academic year.

In March of 2025 the WSUSOM Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum Management Committee convened an ad-hoc subcommittee to revise and update the foundational competencies based on the latest AAMC guidelines. The committee went through an extensive process of mapping and revising previous competencies to the updated recommendations. After multiple iterations of stakeholder feedback, the new foundational competencies were developed. The WSUSOM Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum Management Committee approved in the new foundational competencies on 10/29/25, and they will be instituted beginning with the 2026-2027 academic year. These can be seen below:

Medical Knowledge

Applies and integrates foundational knowledge to improve health care for patients and populations.

1. Demonstrates knowledge of basic, clinical, pathophysiologic, social, epidemiological and health system sciences, as well as humanities, needed for clinical practice.
2. Applies foundational knowledge for clinical problem-solving, diagnostic reasoning, and decision-making to clinical scenarios.
3. Demonstrates knowledge of research design, interpretation, and application to clinical questions.
4. Accesses, critically evaluates, and integrates knowledge relevant to clinical problems using appropriate resources, including psychosocial principles and current and emerging technology.

Patient Care

Demonstrates compassionate, effective, holistic, evidence-informed, equitable, and patient-centered care.

1. Integrates patient and caregiver context, needs, values, preferences, and experiences into patient care.
2. Gathers relevant patient histories from multiple data sources, as necessary.
3. Performs relevant physical examinations using appropriate techniques and tools.
4. Identifies patients in need of urgent or emergent care, seeks assistance, and recommends initial evaluation and management.
5. Creates and prioritizes differential diagnoses.
6. Proposes hypothesis-driven diagnostic testing and interprets results.
7. Formulates therapeutic management plans for commonly encountered clinical conditions.
8. Uses patient-centered language to describe common diagnostic and therapeutic interventions and plans.
9. Demonstrates basic procedural techniques.
10. Incorporates health promotion and disease prevention into patient care plans.
11. Identifies individual and structural factors that impact health and wellness.

Practice-Based Learning and Improvement

Integrates feedback, evidence, and reflection to adapt behavior, foster improvement, and cultivate lifelong learning.

1. Actively seeks and incorporates feedback and assessment data to improve performance.
2. Identifies opportunities for growth in one’s own performance through informed self-assessment and reflective practice.
3. Develops, implements, and reassesses learning and improvement goals.
4. Locates, critically appraises, and synthesizes information to support evidence-informed, patient centered clinical decisions.
5. Demonstrates inquiry and ability to grow and seek new knowledge.
6. Uses current & emerging technologies to optimize learning.

Interpersonal and Communication Skills

Effectively communicates and interacts with patients, caregivers and the healthcare team to contribute to high-quality, patient-centered care.

1. Collaborates (communicates effectively) with patients, caregivers, and team members to enhance the therapeutic relationship.
2. Collaborates with health care and administrative team members to enhance team and organizational function.
3. Demonstrates active listening to effectively understand and respond to patients, peers, and members of the healthcare team.
4. Communicates clearly, accurately, and in a non-biased manner in verbal, nonverbal, written, and electronic formats.
5. Demonstrates skills in educating patients, caregivers, peers, and team members.
6. Formulates, shares, and receives feedback constructively with others.

Professionalism

Demonstrates integrity, respect, and ethical reasoning, and promotes inclusion of differences in all interactions to improve health care for patients, communities, and populations. Incorporates the WSUSOM defined 16 C's into professional identity.

1. Demonstrates respect and compassion for patients, caregivers, families, and team members.
2. Safeguards patient privacy, confidentiality, and autonomy.
3. Applies ethical principles and reasoning to guide behavior.
4. Adapts actions and communication according to the situation.
5. Takes ownership of mistakes and acts to address them.
6. Identifies personal limits of knowledge and skills and seeks assistance appropriately.
7. Identifies personal biases and strategies to mitigate their effects.
8. Demonstrates humility and a willingness to learn from others with different backgrounds and experiences.
9. Recognizes and addresses personal well-being needs that may impact professional performance.
10. Completes duties and tasks in a thorough, reliable, and timely manner.

Systems-Based Practice

Applies knowledge of the larger context of health, including its social and structural determinants, and of systems and resources within and outside of health care, to optimize high-quality care for patients, communities, and populations.

1. Applies knowledge of social and structural drivers of health.
2. Recognizes mechanisms to reduce disparities and advance health equity in patient care and health care systems.
3. Adapts performance to various health care teams, delivery settings, and systems.
4. Collaborates in transitions and coordination of patient care.
5. Evaluates the risks and benefits of using current and emerging technologies and interventions in patient care.
6. Identifies patient safety concerns, systems issues, and opportunities for quality improvement.
7. Describes health policy and the financial context of health care.
8. Applies knowledge of local population and community health needs, disparities, and resources.

13 Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency

• Gather a history and perform a physical examination
• Prioritize a differential diagnosis following a clinical encounter
• Recommend and interpret common diagnostic and screening tests
• Enter and discuss orders and prescriptions
• Document a clinical encounter in the patient record
• Provide an oral presentation of a clinical encounter
• Form clinical questions and retrieve evidence to advance patient care
• Give or receive a patient handover to transition care responsibility
• Collaborate as a member of an interprofessional team
• Recognize a patient requiring urgent or emergent care and initiate evaluation and management
• Obtain informed consent for tests and/or procedures
• Perform general procedures of a physician
• Identify system failures and contribute to a culture of safety and improvement

References

Eglander, R, Cameron, T, Ballard, A, Dodge, J, Bull, J, Aschenbrener, C. Toward a Common Taxonomy of Competency Domains for the Health Professions and Competencies for Physicians: Acad. Med. 2013; 88: 1088-1094

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC). Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency Curriculum Developers' Guide. 2014