Welcome to the Family
Medicine Clerkship! The Department of Family Medicine is
constantly in the process of updating and modifying the curriculum
to insure productive and informative outpatient clinical experience. Several
guidelines are covered below to help make your Clerkship a vital
learning experience and an overview of ambulatory medicine.
The Family Medicine Clerkship is structured so the student will
spend four full days per week (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday)
in the private preceptor's office or in a local Family Practice
Residency Program. Every Wednesday the students meet at the Department
of Family Medicine at the University Family Health Center in Yellow
Springs, OH for the didactic component of the Clerkship.
Family Medicine
is the medical specialty which is concerned with the total health
care of the individual and the family. It is the specialty
in breadth which integrates the biological, clinical, and behavioral
sciences. The scope of Family Medicine is not limited by
age, sex, organ system, or disease entity.
The unique aspects of Family Medicine include:
-
first contact for patients.
- continuity of care (including preventive
services).
- coordination of care.
- comprehensive care.
The goals for students during the Family Medicine Clerkship are
as follows:
-
To
understand the practice of clinical medicine within the Family
Medicine model, emphasizing first contact, continuing,
coordinated, and comprehensive care for all patients.
-
To
develop hands-on experience in patient care through the application
and refinement of clinical skills.
-
To
learn fundamental principles of diagnosis and management of common
outpatient problems which present to the family physician.
-
To
develop the capacity for self-directed learning as it applies
to the clinical and academic arenas.
-
To
develop and refine the skills of teaching and communicating required
for the practice of medicine.
The learning objectives for the clerkship, in relation to each
of the stated goals, are as follows:
-
To
practice clinical medicine within the Family Medicine model. The
student will:
a. Spend
four days per week in a Family Medicine setting under the direction
of a Family Physician preceptor.
b. Attend
to hospitalized patients with their preceptor when appropriate.
c. Participate
in Family Medicine activities of personal interest (i.e. sports
medicine, chemical dependency, rural Family Practice, etc.) as
desired.
d. Interact
with other health care professionals, including consultants and
ancillary care providers, to comprehend the role of the Family
Physician as the coordinator of the total health care of the
patient.
-
To
develop clinical skills through hands-on experience in patient
care. The student will:
a. See
patients independently and perform necessary history-taking and
physical examination, to be reviewed by the preceptor.
b. Develop
diagnostic assessments and management plans for patients utilizing
clinical problem-solving techniques.
c. Document
history and physical findings, assessments, and management plans
in the medical record.
d. Participate
in patient care of a continuing nature, including follow-up
of cases and preventive health techniques.
-
To
understand the management of common outpatient problems. The
student will:
a. Diagnose
and manage common ambulatory illnesses in the preceptors' office
setting.
b. Attend
Wednesday didactic sessions relating to Family Medicine topics.
i) Prepare a one-hour learning experience ("major talk")
for the class on a clinically relevant topic.
ii) Prepare a five-minute "mini-talk" on a lab test
or commonly used medication.
c. Read
pertinent articles about outpatient topics seen in the office
or discussed in didactic sessions.
d. Gain
exposure to approaches in management of common ambulatory illnesses
through discussion and impromptu teaching sessions with the preceptors.
-
Develop
the capacity for self-directed learning. The student will:
a. Explore
the medical literature regarding cases seen in the preceptor
sites.
b. Perform
in-depth examination of a topic of interest in preparation for
the major talk.
-
Refine
the skills of teaching and communicating. The student
will:
a. Present
the major and mini-talks to classmates.
b. Present
cases to the preceptors.
c.
Interact with patients in the
capacity of teaching and counseling.
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