University of Virginia Library

FACILITIES FOR AND METHODS OF INSTRUCTION

The new Medical Building completed in 1929 contains modern well-equipped
laboratories for the accommodation of the medical sciences. This building is
connected by corridors and bridges with the hospital, thus bringing all departments
of the Medical School into close physical association. The new arrangement
necessitated extensive changes in certain portions of the hospital, involving
especially the surgical suite, the X-ray suite and the out-patient quarters. It
required also the erection of an enlarged laundry, a new power plant, and dining
halls for hospital staff and nurses. The Medical School Building consists of two
wings connected by an inside pavilion, all five floors in height. The south wing
houses on four successive floors the departments of biochemistry, pharmacology
and materia medica, physiology, and histology and embryology. On the top floor
are the experimental laboratories, quarters for experimental animals and a fireproof
storage room for X-ray plates. The north wing gives accommodations on
the ground floor for autopsy rooms, an embalming room, a media room, refrigeration,
incineration and storage. The first floor houses half of the Out-patient
Department and the receiving room. On the second floor are the offices of
administration, the museum and the library. On the third floor are the department
of pathology and bacteriology, and two classrooms. The fourth floor contains
a laboratory for neuro-anatomy. The connecting pavilion, or west wing,
contains on the ground floor four student locker rooms, the electrical power
room, a record storage room, and an amphitheatre. The latter is two floors in
height and extends eastward into the open court between the north and south
wings. On the first floor are a lecture room, a staff room, a record room, a drug
room, and examining and sterilizing rooms. On the second floor are housed the
department of clinical pathology and a cardiac laboratory. The third floor has
three laboratories for gross anatomy, a study room, a number of offices, and
quarters for surgical pathology. On the top floor are accommodations for the
department of public health and hygiene.

These laboratories are all presided over by trained teachers, to whom teaching
and investigation are primary considerations. The number of hours assigned
to laboratory subjects is quite large and affords ample time for thorough study
by the best methods. The student is brought into close contact with teachers who
are both willing and able to guide him; he gains a very large part of his knowledge
at first hand and by his own exertions, and thus acquires the habit of working
out things for himself; he becomes self-reliant, a quality essential to the
practice of his difficult profession. Trained in this manner, he acquires an understanding
of the medical sciences and the ability to apply the facts of these
sciences to the subsequent study of disease. For these reasons the great fundamental
sciences receive the utmost consideration, constituting a large part of the
work of the first two years.

The methods of clinical instruction are based upon the belief that no clinical
teaching is efficient which is not governed by essentially the same principles as
those which govern the best laboratory teaching. This instruction is accordingly
designed to enforce with the individual student a careful, thorough, face-to-face

study of disease and its management. The facilities afforded by the University
Hospital and Out-Patient Department are described on a subsequent page. In
the Out-Patient Department and in the Hospital the student learns the methods
of examining patients, of diagnosing their diseases, and of instituting rational
treatment; and he learns these things in much the same way as he studied
in the laboratory, that is to say, by doing them himself under the direction
and criticism of the instructors. This practical training is accompanied by a
systematic study of the various subjects by means of lectures, textbooks, and
recitations. The student conducts a complete examination, records his observations
in a scientific manner, make a diagnosis, states his view as to the treatment
indicated, and keeps a complete record of the case, all under the advice and
criticism of the physician or surgeon in charge. He is expected to keep himself
informed of the progress of the case throughout its course. If it is one requiring
surgical treatment, he assists at the operation, and thus is able to follow all the
procedures of the operator at close range. In addition, students make frequent
visits to the wards with the attending physicians and surgeons, during which
visits the nature, treatment, and progress of various cases are gone over in detail.
The patients of the Blue Ridge Sanatorium afford additional material for clinical
instruction. Since the number of students in each class is relatively small, it is
clear that the department offers capable young men clinical advantages which
are distinctly exceptional.

At the meetings of the Medical Society of the University of Virginia reviews
of important articles, clinical cases and results of original research are
presented by the instructors and by invited guests.

Graduate Instruction in the Department of Medicine is administered under
the Department of Graduate Studies of the University. The courses of the
regular medical curriculum are credited as C courses; elective, special research
and seminar courses are evaluated as D courses. Recent revision of the medical
curriculum, involving chiefly reductions in the number of session-hours of
required work and the establishment of elective and research courses in each of
the major departments, makes possible a greatly enlarged scope of graduate
instruction.

Registrar's Records of Student's Work.—The results of the work of each
student are recorded in the Registrar's office in such manner as to show (1) the
grade received on each course, (2) whether the student has or has not absolved
the course and, if not, what is necessary to obtain a clear record and admit to
dependent subjects, and (3) a valuation in "honor points" of the results of the
work for each session.

1. The grade received on each course. These grades with their percentage
equivalents are as follows:

           

1 + =	95-100 per cent
1 =	90- 94 per cent
2 =	85- 89 per cent
3 =	80- 84 per cent
4 =	70- 79 per cent
5 =	below 70 per cent

The passing grade is 3. A grade of 4 entitles the student to a condition, as
explained below. A grade of 5 means a failure for the course.

No passing grades are reported to the Registrar's office on didactic work
unless the laboratory or clinical part of the course is completed in a satisfactory
manner; nor are any grades reported when the student is deficient until the
deficiency has been made up.

2. Whether the student has or has not absolved the course, and, if not,
what is required to obtain a clear record and admit to dependent subjects.
This is indicated in the following terms:

Passed (P) indicates the satisfactory completion of the course and admits
to all dependent subjects.

Conditioned (C) means that to obtain a clear record on the course the
student must pass a special examination. Failure to take or to pass this examination
is equivalent to a record of "failed." The record "conditioned" is not given
in fourth-year subjects, except in case of illness or other equivalent cause approved
by the faculty.

A student may be conditioned on any examination because of failure to
maintain a reasonable standard of English composition.

Deficient (D) indicates that part of the required laboratory or clinical work
of the course has not been completed. Upon the satisfactory completion of this
work within the time and in the manner prescribed by the professor in charge,
the student receives the word "passed"; otherwise the record is "failed" on the
entire course.

Failed (F) indicates that the course must be repeated; except that when
the laboratory or other practical work has been satisfactorily performed, the
professor in charge may, at his discretion, excuse the student from repeating the
same; and, by special vote of the faculty, the student may be granted optional
attendance upon the course, in whole or in part. In general, a student who is
repeating a course will be required to attend all the exercises of the course, and
will not be excused from any exercise thereof because of schedule conflicts with
more advanced work.

Absence from a regular examination, when excused because of illness or
equivalent cause gives a record of conditioned; if not excused, a record of failed.

3. A valuation of the general results of the work on each course and of
the student's work for the entire session. Honor points.

This is expressed in honor points.

Each course is valued in the usual manner in terms of session-hours. An
honor point (or simply a point) may be defined as the honor value of one-half
session-hour of a course on which a grade of 2 has been received; the honor
value becomes 2 for each half session-hour of a course on which 1 has been
received and 2½ for each half session-hour on which a grade of 1+ has been
received. Thus for each session-hour of a complete course:

• A grade of 3 gives no honor points.

• A grade of 2 gives 2 honor points.

• A grade of 1 gives 4 honor points.

• A grade of 1 + gives 5 honor points.

• A grade of 4 subtracts 2 honor points.

• A grade of 5 subtracts 4 honor points.

No honor points are given on a course on which a condition or failure has
been received at the time of the final examination on the course; except that, in
case of illness or equivalent cause, the results of re-examination or of repetition
of the course—instead of the record on the completion of the course—may be
made the basis of estimating honor points.

Students who receive on the entire curriculum of any one year of medical
study, or its equivalent, a total of 50 honor points have optional attendance on
all the didactic work of the next session.

Special Rules Governing Advancement and Registration.

I. At the close of the University in June, the status of the students shall be
fixed for the next session, classification being made as follows: (a) Promoted;
(b) Required to Withdraw; (c) Provisionally Promoted; and (d) Required to
Repeat.

(a) Promoted. This group shall be composed of all students who have
satisfactorily completed the entire work of the year.

(b) Required to Withdraw. This group shall include such students as are
not deemed competent to continue their training in this school. The record
requiring withdrawal, reckoned in session-hours, is as follows:

For first-year students—(1) Failures in 9 session-hours; (2) failures in 6
hours plus conditions in 6 hours.

For second-year students—(1) Failures in 10 hours; (2) failures in 8 hours
plus conditions in 4 hours.

For third-year students—(1) Failures in 6½ hours; (2) failures in 4½ hours
plus conditions in 4 hours.

(c) Provisionally Promoted. This group shall include students who have
incurred only such deficiencies as can with reasonable expectation be removed by
the opening of the next session. The record entitling provisional promotion,
reckoned in session-hours, must not be lower than the following:

For first-year students—(1) Failures in 6 session-hours; (2) failures in 4
hours plus conditions in 4 hours; (3) conditions in 10 hours.

For second-year students—(1) Failures in 7 hours; (2) failures in 6 hours
plus conditions in 3 hours; (3) conditions in 11 hours.

For third-year students—(1) Failures in 4½ hours (2) failures in 3 hours
plus conditions in 3 hours; (3) conditions in 8 hours.

(d) Required to Repeat. This group shall include all students not placed in
groups a, b, and c. A student who is repeating must attend all exercises of the
year, or courses, and pass the examinations, regardless of the grades previously
made.

II. Students, classified in June as "Required to Withdraw" or "Required to
Repeat," shall not change their status by passing summer courses and (or)
special examinations.

III. A student who has been permitted to repeat a year, or prescribed
courses, shall not be granted the privilege for a second time, i. e., he shall not
spend more than five years in completing the requirements for graduation.

IV. A student may not take any course, either in whole or in part (as
explained under the above definition of failed) more than twice. A second
record of failed on the same course involves withdrawal from the Department
of Medicine.

V. A clear record at the opening of the session in September on all
subjects of the preceding year is required for advancement to the third and
fourth years.

VI. Summer courses taken for the removal of deficiencies must be approved
by the professor in whose subjects the deficiencies were incurred; but it shall
be the duty of the student concerned to provide the information on which to
base the decision as to acceptability of courses; he must absolve the summer
work and have an official record mailed directly from the institution to the professor
at the University in charge of the subjects; and in addition he must
report for the special examination at this University and make a passing grade
therein.

VII. Any student, who makes a grade below passing on any term's work
or is in any way derelict in his duties, shall be warned, warned and placed on
probation, or dismissed, according to the merits of the case.

The value in session-hours of the courses of the first three years:—

                     

First Year		Second Year		Third Year
Anatomy 1	6	Physiology	5	Clinical Diagnosis	2.5
Anatomy 2	2	Pathology	6	Medicine	4.0
Histology	4	Pharmacology	3	Surgery	4.0
Embryology	2	Materia Medica	2	Obstetrics	2.5
Biochemistry	4	Physical Diagnosis	1	Orthopedics	1.5
Bacteriology	3	Medicine	2	Pediatrics	2.0
		Surgery	1	Urology	1.0
				Ophthalmology	1.0
				Otolaryngology	1.0
Totals	21	Totals	20	Totals	19.5

Similar rules are enforced at practically all medical schools. It is exceedingly
difficult for a student who has been dropped or not advanced at one school
to secure admission to another. Compulsory withdrawal may therefore terminate
a medical career.

Candidates for the degree of Doctor of Medicine, who have less than one
full year's work to complete, may be required to take such additional work and
to pass such additional examinations as the Medical Faculty may prescribe. This
additional work may be selected from any of the courses given in the Department

of Medicine, even when such prescribed courses have previously been taken
and passed by the candidate in question.

Certificates of Attendance.—Students who attend the whole regular course
of one or more of the four years are entitled to an official statement under the
seal of the University, showing all courses for which the student was registered
each year as a medical student and the record (see above under "Regulations")
with the grade received on each course for which he was registered. These
statements will also contain any special faculty votes affecting the student's
registration in this school.

In no case will the University give an official certificate of the completion of
a part of a course. The professor in charge may, at his discretion, make a
personal statement by letter to the head of the same department in another
medical school of the work done by the student in his course; but he must at the
same time clearly state that this letter does not give credit in this medical school.

Requirements for Graduation.—The degree of Doctor of Medicine is conferred
by the University of Virginia upon candidates who have complied with
the entrance requirements of this department; attended a regular medical course
of four years of at least eight months each, the last two of which years must
have been at this institution; and have satisfactorily completed a thesis and all
of the subjects included in the medical course.

Examinations.—These are in writing, accompanied in many subjects by
individual practical examinations. Examinations may be held only during the
regular examination periods at the end of each term or during the vacation
periods. No examinations may be given while regular class work is in progress;
provided this rule is not to be interpreted to prohibit unannounced written tests
or regular daily or weekly tests which count on the class standing of students.
The regular examinations are held at stated periods during the session. In addition,
examinations are held each year during the week immediately preceding the
beginning of lectures. To the latter are admitted:

1. Students of the previous session, who, from illness or other equivalent
cause approved by the faculty, were unable to present themselves for examination
in any particular subject at the regular time.

2. Students who at the regular examination in any first-, second-, or third-year
subject of the preceding session have attained a grade less than 80 per
cent., but as much as 70 per cent., on one or more subjects, as explained in a
preceding paragraph. This does not apply to students who have been required to
withdraw, or required to repeat, under the Special Rules Governing Advancement
(pp. 370-371).

3. Certain applicants for advanced standing who are required to take
examinations by the Committee on Advanced Standing.

The usual period for special or conditioned examinations is in September
during the week of registration; but such examinations may be scheduled, at the
option of the professor in charge, for any other time, provided regular class
work is not in progress and also provided all students entitled to take examinations
agree to the change of date. For a special or condition examination held at

any other time than that assigned for all students entitled thereto a fee of five
dollars is charged. This fee must be paid to the Bursar before the examination
is held.

In all courses in which there is practical work, either in the laboratory or in
the out-patient department or wards of the hospital, two records are returned to
the Registrar's office for each student; one of these records is for the practical
laboratory or clinical work in which the record is P(assed), D(eficient), or
F(ailed), the other record is for the didactic work, including the final examinations—in
which case the record is P(assed), C(onditioned), D(eficient), or
F(ailed), with the approximate percentage grade. To obtain a clear record on
the course a student must have a record of P(assed) both on practical and on
didactic work; in no case will the two grades be averaged. No record whatever
is given on didactic work unless there is a record of P(assed) on practical work
nor will any record be given on practical work until a clear record is obtained
on didactic work; failure on practical work gives a record of F(ailed) on the
entire course.

The Fall Examinations for 1935-36 begin September 9 and close September
14. Students entitled to admission to these examinations will be informed
of the date of examination by the Dean.

Expenses.—The fees for instruction are 1, the tuition fee; 2, the University
fee which entitles the student to the use of the Library, Gymnasium, to medical
attention, etc.; 3, the athletic fee; 4, the Topics fee; 5, special laboratory fees, as
specified in following table.

                                     

	First Year	Second Year	Third Year	Fourth Year
Tuition (Virginians)	$250 00	$250 00	$250 00	$250 00
(Non-Virginians)	300 00	300 00	300 00	300 00
University fee	60 00	60 00	60 00	60 00
Athletic fee	15 00	15 00	15 00	15 00
College Topics fee	1 50	1 50	1 50	1 50
Laboratory Fees:
Biochemistry	10 00
Deposit in Biochemistry	10 00
Anatomy 1 and 2	17 50
Histology and Embryology	7 50
Physiology		10 00
Bacteriology	7 50
Pathology		5 00
Pharmacology		5 00
Clinical Diagnosis		5 00	5 00
Materia Medica		5 00
Total (Virginians)	$379 00	$356 50	$331 50	$326 50
(Non-Virginians)	429 00	406 50	381 50	376 50

The minimum for necessary living expenses, including room, heat, light,
furniture, service, board, books, and laundry, is estimated at $400.

In the course in Biochemistry, a deposit of $10 is required to cover cost of
breakage.

A fee of $3.00 is required of all women students for the upkeep of the
"Women Students' Association Room."

Each student in the Department of Medicine is required to provide himself
with a satisfactory microscope.

Voluntary Withdrawal from the University requires the written consent of
the Dean of the University and the Dean of the Department in which the student
is registered. When a permit is granted upon the University Physician's certificate
that withdrawal is necessary on account of ill health, which must not be due to
dissolute conduct, the fees are returned pro rata. Under no other circumstances
will there be a return of fees.

Combined Degrees in Arts (or Science) and Medicine.—Students who
have credit for the 48 session-hours of the group electives required in this
University for the cultural baccalaureate degrees in arts and science may substitute
for 12 session-hours of Electives-at-Large the first-year course in the
Department of Medicine and receive the degree of Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor
of Science at the end of the year. For further information, see the General
Catalogue of the University.

The University offers also the degree of Bachelor of Science in Medicine.
This degree has been placed in charge of the Medical Faculty. It is awarded on
the recommendation of the Medical Faculty after the completion of the second
year of the medical curriculum to students who (1) present 33 session hours of
acceptable work in premedical college subjects (whether taken in the University
or elsewhere) as specified below; (2) complete the first two years of the medical
course in this University with grades in general higher than the lowest passing
grade; and (3) demonstrate by examination a reading knowledge of medical
French and German.

(1) Premedical College Subjects.—These must include:

           

	Session-hours
One year of English	3
Algebra, Solid Geometry, Plane Trigonometry	3
Physics, Chemistry, and Biology	24
With minimum requirements in each subject as follows:         (a)  General Chemistry (including in this term Analytical or Physical Chemistry)  6  (b)  Organic Chemistry  3  (c)  General Physics  4  (d)  Biological Science  6
Elective in subjects other than Physics, Chemistry and Biology	3

(2) First two years of the Medical Curriculum, completed with a record
of 30 honor points on first-year subjects and 40 honor points on second-year
subjects.

(3) Reading knowledge of Medical French and German.—This will be
tested by examination consisting of the translation of passages from text-books
of Anatomy and Histology, Biochemistry, Physiology, and Pathology. No specific
college work is required although the equivalent of 3 session-hour college courses
in each of these languages is desirable. The vocabulary of medical French and
German may best be acquired by using foreign text-books, etc., in the above
medical sciences as parallel reading, or as summer reading after the completion
of the above subjects in the regular medical course.