Junior Medicine Clerkship (M3)The focus of our 12 week junior medicine clerkship is the care of patients with complex medical and psychosocial problems. During the 8 weeks of inpatient medicine, you will take a complete history, conduct a thorough and accurate physical exam, take into consideration complex psycho-social issues, formulate a problem list, construct a relevant differential diagnosis, and along with your team begin to manage the daily details of the care of your patients.
Inpatient Blocks
- The student is considered to be an integral part of the ward team, and is to be given progressive levels of responsibilities based on the student's individual capacity. In other words, the more initiative you take, the more responsibility you will get.
- The student should try to conduct the initial history and physical alone at least ½ the time. This may mean taking a "less interesting patient", but being alone with your patient is a unique experience. The "easiest" thing to do is participate in a group interview with your intern and resident. In general this is less educational for the student.
- The student should read about his/her patient's problems and related disorders. Ideally, this should be done prior to writing your assessment plan and before presenting the patient the following morning. Reading about clinical medicine when it directly pertains to your patient is the most fun way to learn medicine as well as the best way to remember it.
The inpatient component of junior medicine is composed of two 4-week components. There are two sites-NMH and the Jesse Brown VA. Every student will spend at least 4 weeks at NMH. Each hospital has its own schedule of clinical rounds, teaching attending rounds, and conferences. The clerkship is designed to take maximal advantage of the activities of the medical service at each site, while providing a number of common features and activities at all sites to ensure an appropriate degree of comparability in the education experience and to promote continuity between your first and second six weeks' experience.
Specialty Block
After a 3 year internal medicine residency, a physician can elect to pursue a fellowship in a particular area - e.g. cardiology, gastroenterology, nephrology, pulmonary, etc. These specialists often serve as consultants to the inpatient medicine teams. The specialty medicine rotation component of the third year internal medicine clerkship is designed to ensure some student exposure to the medicine specialties. During the 4 weeks of specialty medicine, you will learn how to take a focused history and physical, manage chronic conditions and symptoms, and develop a more detailed approach and knowledge base regarding two specialty areas of internal medicine.
The general goals of this four week block are: - Learn how to be an effective consultant
- Understand the management of chronic conditions and symptoms
- Learn how to take a focused history and physical
- Gain exposure to different aspects of medicine (inpatient, outpatient, procedural)
- Develop a more detailed approach and knowledge base regarding specific aspects of medicine
David Neely, MD
Director, Undergraduate Education
Department of Medicine | 
