Year 1 | Class of 2026

No Eating or Drinking in the TAC 2^nd & 3^rd Floor Laboratories

It is important to remind everyone that there can be no eating or drinking in the 2^nd floor TAC Laboratories or in the TAC 3^rdfloor Anatomy teaching spaces. This includes no disposal of food or drink containers or wrappers in these spaces per Yale Environmental Health and Safety (EHS) requirements. These teaching labs are labeled as hazardous areas by EHS. There are areas outside the labs labeled for food and/or drink purposes, and trash cans for food/drink waste disposal. Every user of the TAC Biohazard Teaching Labs needs to comply with the state and/or federal requirements. Violation by one user of the conditions regarding Department of Public Health (DPH) permit approval between Yale University and DPH, affect the DPH permit privileges of the entire building (TAC).

TAC Lab Locker Assignments

Lockers will be available outside of the second floor TAC labs for all MS1s to store lab coats, glasses and other items which will be used in the Microbiology and other first year labs.

• Locker assignments will be posted on the bulletin board outside the teaching lab on Thursday, December 8^th.
• Locker combinations will be posted inside the lockers.
• Unlocked locks will also be inside the lockers.

Please see Leslie Delpin in TAC N240 if you need assistance with the lockers.

Attacks & Defenses

Attacks and Defenses continues with the immunology portion of the course. The mandatory Self-Assessment for this first portion of the course will be posted on Friday, December 16^th and will close at 11:45pm on Sunday, December 18^th. After the Winter Break, the course will resume on Tuesday, January 3^rd.

Anatomy

Anatomy will resume after the Winter Break on Wednesday, January 4^th with a lab on the liver and pancreas.

The Anatomy faculty will be offering Office Hours this Tuesday, December 13^th from, 2:00 – 5:00. The next Office Hours will be January 10^th.

This week’s Office Hours will:

1. Continue laparoscopy
2. Precision, fine dissection – Saeed Juggan
3. Suture school (www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFwFMav_cpE&t=216s , Learn How To Suture - Best Suture Techniques and Training)

In the new year we hope to establish a collaboration with the Simulation Center and bring clinical cases to the Anatomy Lab during Office Hours.

Professional Responsibility

Professional Responsibility concludes on December 14^th with your final presentations.

If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about the Pre-Clerkship curriculum, please contact the Pre-Clerkship Co-Directors Dr. Peter Takizawa and Dr. Michael DiGiovanna, or the Manager of the Pre-Clerkship period, Marion Miller.

Clinical Skills Course - MS1s

In our final class session of the semester on December 15^th you will use of point of care ultrasound in the practice rooms. The CS curriculum will pick up in January with physical examination. You will work with classmates, upper-level students, and faculty through a 9-week curriculum consisting of weekly hands-on practice sessions, culminating with an observed “head to toe” physical exam without notes in week 9. Refer to Dr. Donroe’s overview provided in class last week for more details. The amount of between-class preparation and practice will increase considerably when PE starts in January. The course syllabus includes required reading/videos/practice and is already posted in BlueDogs for January 5^th. We encourage you to get a head start!

As mentioned in class, the 9-week introductory PE curriculum will not include breast, pelvic, rectal, or genitourinary examinations. These important aspects of the exam will be taught in separate sessions later in the spring by professional exam models who will teach you a safe, trauma-informed approach to examination using their own bodies. You will spend the rest of the spring semester in CS learning about how to apply your general history, physical skills, and clinical reasoning skills to specific populations (e.g., pediatrics, geriatrics, women’s health, military veterans), as well developing new skills (e.g., advanced PE, point of care ultrasound).

If you have questions, concerns, or suggestions about the CS curriculum please contact Dr. Jaideep Talwalkar or Tracy Yale or any of your CS faculty.

Interprofessional Longitudinal Clinical Experience (ILCE)

As we approach the half-way point in the ILCE, there are several upcoming events to highlight. There are no Clinical Experiences scheduled for the first week in January when you return from break, instead we have the “Trauma-Informed Care” session on Friday, January 6^th, which will be ZOOM-based. Like most ILCE workshops and lectures, this is a flipped classroom session, and all relevant materials will be posted to Blue Dogs on or before January 4^th. While we are wrapping up Simulation 1 on Monday, December 12^th, we are already looking forward to Simulation 2 (February 6^th – March 3^rd). Please find the SIM2 schedule posted to Blue Dogs and note your group’s date and time on your calendar. Please make sure to communicate your scheduled SIM2 date to your coaches, as you will not meet with them the week, you’re scheduled for Sim2. We truly hope you all enjoy your well-deserved winter break, and we look forward to seeing and working with you in the new year.

If you have any questions, please feel free to email Dr. Alina Tsyrulnik, MD, ILCE Co-Director or Danette Morrison, ILCE Coordinator. We look forward to seeing you soon.