(Drs. Holmes and Pretorius)
Unlike other rotations, the majority of your clerkship will be spent
in private practice. Before the rotation begins, you have an
opportunity to request a specific physician you'd like to work with -
if you don't know any then you just put down a preference for either
an urban, suburban, or rural practice. If you choose an urban or
suburban setting, you'll do inpatient family med at ECMC, BGH, or MFSH
for 2 of the 6 weeks; the other 4 weeks are spent with your preceptor.
If you choose a rural preceptor your inpatient experience will just be
a normal part of each week. Lectures are on Monday mornings in the
Clinical Competency Center classroom on South Campus. Unlike other
clerkships you have weekly quizzes which are worth a total of 15%,
which is actually more than the shelf exam, which is worth 10%. There
is also a clinical skills exam, a la CPM, except you have 15 minutes
per patient. You will also have a patient safety project (or some
other sort of project).
Family med inpatient:
From what I hear from people who did inpatient Medicine, this is very
similar. The patients tend to be less sick, generally. You do
prerounds (talk to your patients, write progress notes) starting at
around 6:30 am, rounds are usually at around 8 or so, depending on the
attending. Rounding can last anywhere from 2-4 hours, depending on the
attending and the patient load. After rounds, if there are any
admissions, you'll go down to the ER and do an H&P; if not, you walk
around hunting down imaging results/lab results/whatever else the
residents send you off to do. You do 3 weekday calls and 1 weekend
call during the 2 weeks. When you have weekday calls you can leave
anywhere from 6-11 pm, depending on your residents. Weekend call is a
"24 hour" call, but all that means is that you might be there past 11
pm, and then have to come in the next morning to do rounds before
going back home. If you don't have call, you'll probably leave the
hospital around 5 pm each night.
Family med outpatient:
This is highly variable and depends a lot on your preceptor. For some
students, it's more or less a glorified, extended period of shadowing.
For other students, you'll be seeing patients on your own and
performing minor procedures with supervision. Some preceptors give out
H's like candy, others never give H's. Some have pharm lunches every
day, others once or twice a week. Ask third-years about their
experiences with their preceptors, make a note of a preceptor's name
if the level of responsibility that preceptor gives his/her students
sounds like what you want, because you're allowed to request
preceptors. Make sure to check your mailbox before the end of second
year for the preceptor request form.
