Bringing Education & Service Together (BEST)

Bringing Education & Service Together (BEST) is an interdisciplinary “service learning” project for primary care resident physicians at the University of California, Irvine (UCI).  The project is sponsored by the Bureau of Health Professions (U.S. Public Health Service), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Tamkin Foundation.  The underlying concept of the BEST initiative is that primary care residents become better physicians by learning through service: service to their multicultural patient populations through better communication skills, and service to their learners through better teaching skills.  Most important, through self-directed learning, participating residents will serve their own educational needs.  The project seeks to address three specific outcome objectives.

Objective 1:  To expand UCI’s existing physician/patient communication skills program to implement a curriculum in culturally competent communication skills.

• Year 01:  Conduct focus groups to determine generalist residents’ specific learning needs for developing these skills, and expand existing communication skills curriculum.

• Year 02:  Implement pilot interdisciplinary communication skills curriculum for 10 residents in family medicine, pediatrics, and internal medicine.

• Year 03:  Implement interdisciplinary communication skills curriculum for 30 such residents.

Objective 2:  To undertake and evaluate a longitudinal residents-as-teachers curriculum.

• Year 01:  Conduct focus groups to determine generalist residents’ specific learning needs for becoming better teachers and develop a curriculum to address these needs.

• Year 02:  Implement pilot interdisciplinary teaching skills curriculum for 15 residents in family medicine, pediatrics, and internal medicine.

• Year 03:  Implement interdisciplinary teaching skills curriculum for 30 such residents.

Objective 3:  To disseminate the BEST Project’s curriculum to residents and faculty across the country with an interactive web site.

• Year 01:  Develop and publicize initial web site for residents, to include interactive modules in teaching skills.

• Year 02:  One thousand residents will use expanded web site.

• Year 03:  Two thousand residents will use expanded web site.