Clinical Family Medicine

Catalog description

The Family Medicine rotation is primarily done in the ambulatory setting, however, will often include experiences accompanying the faculty member in the inpatient setting, nursing home or minor care. Family Medicine is a specialty where students can learn to diagnose and manage common acute and chronic conditions, which present to the primary care setting. Students will also learn to discriminate emergent ambulatory conditions from non-emergent. During the rotation, students should begin to acquire the essential knowledge to practice cost effective outpatient health care, often in a rural setting. Depending on the practice, students may also be exposed to the hospital setting providing care to the patients of the family medicine physician. Because family medicine has the unique distinction of providing continuity of care for the entire family ‘from birth to death’, students will be expected to have a variety of ambulatory exposures including general medical cases, pediatric cases, geriatric cases, office surgical procedures, osteopathic manipulative medicine and common mental health disorders. Students should also acquire skills in preventive medicine for male and female patients of all age groups according to the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF). The student should also have exposure to the business of medicine in the ambulatory setting. •