We are aware that pre-professional students must show evidence of clinical experience as part of the criteria for application to some professional specialties. In the past each student had to identify and solicit permission to engage in a clinical experience opportunity in the health care community in order to fulfill this obligation.
The Department of Biology has designed a course entitled "Clinical Experience in Health Care" as an upper division elective providing clinical experience for the pre-professional student. This 3 credit hour course will place students in clinical settings within the region to provide them with the kinds of experience for which evidence is required for application to professional schools as well as to allow them perform in the real-world setting they have chosen to enter.
If a student is interested in arranging for a clinical experience in this setting for which they will receive credit, please contact your advisor, Steve Celestial (scelestial@uwf.edu) or Dr. Angela Hahn (ahahn@uwf.edu or the Pre-Professional Advisor , Dr. Chris Behan at kbehan@uwf.edu or the Chair of Biology at gstewart@uwf.edu for enrollment guidelines. A GPA of 3.0 is required for enrollment in this course and there is a fee of around $60 for a background check and drug screen which you should contact Dr. Behan to initiate.
BEFORE the student enrolls in the course, they must have an overall GPA of 3.0 and meet and interview with the health care entity. In this interview the student will learn about the project to which they will be assigned and the entity will determine if the student and the proposed project are a ”good match”. If the student is satisfied with the project and the entity is convinced the student will do well in the project, the student may enroll in the course.
The general theme of topics for this course will be clinical/research experiences in a formal health care setting in which the student is engaged, under the supervision of a health professional, in activities directly or indirectly related to patient care. The specific projects will vary from student-to-student and from health care setting-to-health care setting but will be tailored to demonstrate the student's interest in, and commitment to becoming a health care professional, and to provide a realistic experience for the student in their chosen career.
As part of the requirements for this course, at the end of the course but before grades are assigned (2 weeks before the end of the semester in which you are enrolled or by a date designated by the instructor), the student submits the original of a project report to the designated UWF instructor of the course with a copy to their supervisor at the host health care institution for validation of the project. The project report is graded by the UWF instructor with an eye toward completeness of the project description (15%), a clear understanding of the ethical issues encompassed by their project (20%), a statement describing their conclusions and recommendations related to the project (40%) and the appropriateness of the structure of the report (10%). The host institution will provide an assessment of student performance (15% of the course grade) The project report should include the following sections: Project Description; Introduction; Observations, Conclusions and Recommendations; and References (where appropriate). The following grading scale will apply:
<60 F
60-69 D
70-79 C
80-89 B
100-90 A