4 weeks
Clerkship Director
Jillian Roper-Kyle, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
roperj@upmc.edu
Course Description
This 4-week outpatient only course provides students with 4-week experience in ambulatory internal medicine as well as (for one half-day per week) a longitudinal experience in outpatient psychiatry. One morning per week students participate in a longitudinal curriculum that covers topics specific to the discipline. The clerkship curriculum incorporates many cross-cutting themes such as evidence–based medicine, health–care finance, tobacco cessation, women’s health, geriatric medicine, wellness and prevention, and interpersonal communication.
Course Objectives
- Show a thorough understanding of common diagnoses; therapeutics; and age specific preventative strategies for health promotion and disease screening that present to the general internist.
- Accurately perform both complete and symptom focused physical examinations (including mental status) based on the clinical situation.
- Generate accurate and succinct differential diagnoses for a patient’s chief complaint.
- Demonstrate the ability to orally present the case (history, physical exam with basic elements of assessment and a plan) in a clear, focused and chronological manner.
- Successfully undertake a patient-centered communication style to outpatient visits. They will demonstrate effective listening skills, empathy and respect for the patient.
Students participate in patient care at offices and clinics throughout the region, including hospital–based sites and a variety of community–based locations, in generalist and/or specialist settings.
Educational Methods
- Ambulatory patient-care activities
- Critically appraised topic assignments
- Standardized patient sessions
- Multimedia modules
- Lectures
- Structured readings
- Learning logs
- Workshops
- Web-based cases
Evaluation
Evaluation in this course is based on outpatient medicine preceptor evaluations (50%), NBME web-based subject exam (25%) and standardized patient OSCE (25%).
Grading: The clerkship is graded Honors, High Satisfactory, Satisfactory, Low Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory