Primary Care Leadership Track (PCLT) - Medicine

Catalog description

During the second year clerkship in medicine, students each will be assigned two four-week blocks to a team taking care of patients on the Internal Medicine Wards at Duke University Hospital, Duke Regional Hospital, or the Durham Veterans Administration Hospital. The Internal Medicine Clerkship is an opportunity for the student to consolidate knowledge from the first year and apply it to patient care. Functioning within teams allows students to observe, practice, acquire, and refine basic humanistic and clinical skills while acquiring some of the factual information used in the practice of medicine. Students are assigned patients to evaluate and follow; these patients become representative learning experiences in a case-study model. Goals of the Medicine clerkship are to teach a method of patient evaluation and care and to provide a firm foundation in medical problem-solving that will be helpful throughout the student's future career. Students are expected to take primary responsibility for the care of their patients, following them daily, writing progress notes in the chart, keeping track of what has happened to their patients since last seen, and having a good understanding of the rationale for and outcomes of all diagnostic tests and therapeutic interventions. Methods of assessment include clinical evaluations by residents and attendings, a clinical performance exam, ECG interpretation exam, Lab interpretation exam, online case-based examination, and the NBME Medicine shelf exam. Credit: 8. John Roberts, MD; Jenny Van Kirk, MD; and staff