MS 3 Clerkship Descriptions

The goal of this clerkship is to introduce the principles and practice of Family Medicine, and to provide the essential clinical skills and training, which students will find useful in whichever specialty they choose to pursue. This clerkship focuses on the approach to the ambulatory patient and learning activities are planned to introduce the skills, knowledge, and attitudes that all physicians need when faced with such a patient.  The curriculum for this course focuses more on the process of evaluating and treating a new patient or problem, and is not limited by a specific content.  A core content will be addressed that is central to the acute, chronic, and preventive care that family physicians deliver.  Additional knowledge and skills are gained in the specific areas relevant to the patient encounters.  Students develop a framework within which they can initiate evaluation and care for any patient, regardless of clinical setting or problem, and do so in a fashion that fosters an ongoing relationship with the patient.

The geriatric and palliative third year clerkship rotation is designed to enable medical students to practice effectively in a clinical setting.  Students will actively participate in the ongoing, daily care of older patients. Students will be paired with a geriatric or palliative preceptor who will provide clinical teaching and feedback.  Throughout the clerkship, students will work with a variety of geriatric and/or palliative focused health professionals as part of the interprofessional team approach.

The Internal Medicine Clerkship is an eight-week rotation split into two four week blocks with the primary goal of introducing students to the evaluation and treatment of adults hospitalized with acute medical illness. Emphasis is placed on developing the skills to diagnose common clinical conditions and to recognize the clinical presentations of common diseases. Students will take patient histories, perform comprehensive physical exams, formulate problem lists with appropriate differential diagnoses, and document their findings in the electronic health record. Students will participate in the evaluation of a diversity of patients as part of a team of residents and students under the supervision of an internal medicine faculty member.

This clerkship is a four-week rotation split into two blocks. Our goal is to educate all medical students sufficiently to appropriately evaluate the patient with a neurologic complaint or deficit. Students (our future physicians) should leave our clerkship with the ability to successfully perform a thorough history and neurologic exam, the ability to “localize the lesion” and the ability to provide an appropriate diagnosis and treatment plan.

The Obstetrics and Gynecology clerkship covers pathophysiology of the female reproductive system.  The basis for the diagnosis, management, and treatment of diseases specific to women are also covered.  Students participate in patient encounters in the operating room, labor and delivery, emergency room, ambulatory clinics and on the hospital wards.

Pediatrics is an eight-week rotation, with four weeks spent on the inpatient unit at Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital and four weeks spent at one of several outpatient pediatric clinics scattered around Houston. Students will be exposed to the care of newborn infants, children with acute and chronic medical conditions, and well children coming in for their regular checkups. A major focus of the clerkship is injury and illness prevention. Students will become familiar with congenital and acquired conditions, as well as normal and abnormal patterns of development.

Students in this clerkship will build on their knowledge about behavioral sciences from their Doctoring and Nervous System and Behavior module experiences and will expand their interviewing, diagnostic and treatment skills for psychiatric disorders.

The Surgery clerkship curriculum emphasizes the basic clinical skills required to solve common surgical problems. Students will be introduced to preoperative, postoperative, emergency, and ambulatory care of patients.  By the completion of this clerkship, students will be expected to demonstrate an understanding of the pathophysiology of surgically treatable diseases and to have acquired sufficient knowledge and diagnostic skills to be able to recognize when a patient’s condition might best be served by a surgical consultation. Students will also develop skills for the safe, effective, and efficient management of patients in the hospital and ambulatory setting.

LIC takes place at LBJ in a primarily outpatient setting and includes Internal Medicine, Family Medicine, Geriatrics, Obstetrics-Gynecology, and Pediatrics. It is a 28-week rotation; the first four weeks will be an Internal Medicine inpatient immersion, while the remaining 24 weeks will be spent rotating between the five specialty areas in mostly outpatient settings. Students will still take shelf exams during the LIC and complete the same case logging requirements as regular clerkship students. After completing the LIC, students will take their remaining clerkships in the traditional model.