MISSION STATEMENT OF THE COLLEGES

OF THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE

PREAMBLE

What does it mean to be a physician and practice Medicine? The usual answers to this significant question include the following: physicians promote individual and community health, prevent human suffering, relieve suffering caused by illness or disease when it does occur, prevent untimely death, pursue knowledge and truth as they relate to the human condition, and apply knowledge and truth–tempered with wisdom–in managing issues of health and disease in the care of patients, society, and the world community.

In reality, though, every physician answers the question of what it means to be a physician and practice Medicine in his or her own and individual way. Ultimately, one’s true answers consist of the efforts and the actions that make up the minutes, hours, days, and years of a physician’s professional life. Truthfully, then, there is no final endpoint to the process of becoming and being a medical doctor. As physicians, we are always in the process of becoming; we are always practicing Medicine. Medical school does not create physicians. Medical school lays the foundation upon which the clinical and professional life of a physician is continually built and continually grows.

With these ideas foremost in our minds and hearts, the faculty of the Colleges of the University of Washington School of Medicine recognize both the great privilege and solemn responsibility that has been entrusted to us in the training of medical students throughout medical school. We embrace our mission now as follows:

TO OUR STUDENTS, WE ARE DEDICATED TO

Teaching you the art and science of the medical history and the physical examination.
Serving you in the processes of learning, practicing, and beginning mastery of the knowledge and bedside skills necessary to competently and humanely evaluate and care for patients.
Teaching and advocating the way of life that is medical professionalism; where professionalism demands that physicians place patients first and foremost in their decision-making processes and also demands that physicians honor the principles of service, patient welfare, patient autonomy, patient confidentiality, truth, and social justice.
Developing your individual talents and excellence in the pursuit and practice of Medicine.
Fostering a life-long commitment to clinical competence, knowledge, honesty and integrity, appropriate patient and collegial relationships, and just access to quality health care for all people.
Providing consistent advising and mentoring to enhance your joy, your clinical and professional excellence, and your personhood and to lessen your own unnecessary suffering in this demanding training process and profession.

TO THE SCHOOL OF MEDICINE, WE ARE COMMITTED TO

Fostering the highest levels of clinical excellence in all our students.
Promoting exemplary, compassionate, service-oriented, and patient-centered care in all our students.
Promoting continual discovery and lifelong learning in all our students.
Creating, maintaining, and delivering an integrated curriculum of clinical skills, ethics, evidence-based knowledge, and professionalism.
Developing faculty and curricula to enhance clinical skills teaching at all levels of medical education.
Maintaining an open dialogue throughout the School of Medicine and the WWAMI community to continually develop, research, and enhance clinical skills training, teaching, and medical education.

TO OUR REGION AND THE WORLD, WE ARE COMMITTED TO

Providing a medical foundation for medical students that ultimately will result in the highest caliber of physicians, who will then serve their patients and their communities with clinical excellence, compassion, and professionalism.
Collaborating with others, anywhere, who are also committed to the highest standards of teaching and mentoring medical students, researching medical education, developing clinical skills curricula, and promoting professionalism.
Promoting medical service to and social justice for all peoples.