Welcome to the clerkship in Internal Medicine!

As a third-year associate on Medicine, you will be using your basic science knowledge as a foundation for your clinical studies in a teaching environment that is simultaneously learner-centered and patient-centered.

During the Medicine clerkship, although you will have a great deal of independence, you will participate in many required structured conferences, rounds and seminars. You will be an integral part of a clinical team composed of teaching attending physician, hospitalist, resident physician, interns and acting interns, in addition to you and your fellow students. As part of the team, you will participate in all house staff activities, including daily morning work rounds, during which you will present your patients to your resident, and teaching rounds with the attending physician. You will assist your intern or acting intern in appropriate patient procedures and other ward activities, including contacting consulting services, ordering appropriate tests, and arranging outpatient follow up. Our goal is to have you feel as responsible for the patient’s welfare as though you were his or her personal physician. To that end, when you leave the team for the day or to attend conferences, please keep your resident informed. The resident or chief resident will discuss details of these team responsibilities with you.

Inside this site, you will find several materials that you should read in detail. Those items include site assignments, conference schedules, preferred formats for clinical write-ups and for patient presentations, information regarding the required essay, safety precautions, the protocol for grades. On the website, you will also find a list of the learning objectives of the Department of Medicine regarding general core clinical competencies.

Now that you are in your clinical years, I encourage you to consider joining the American College of Physicians (ACP) at this time. Membership is free for medical students, and includes access to Annals of Internal Medicine Online, attendance to national and regional meetings, a quarterly newsletter published by the Council of Student Members, and substantial discounts on all their publications and services. You should also consider submitting abstracts for their medical student competitions that take place at ACP regional and national meetings. You can join online at www.acponline.org/srf.

 I look forward to meeting with you and working with you during the clerkship.

                                                            Sincerely,

                                                            Anthony J. Grieco, M.D.

                                                            Professor of Medicine

                                                            Associate Chair for Education