Internal Medicine – Community Health - 4 wks

Catalog description

This clinical rotation is designed to provide medical students with a comprehensive, hands-on experience in internal medicine across both inpatient and outpatient settings. Specifically, students will rotate in an urban, academic community hospital as well as a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) and see a mix of hospitalized and ambulatory patients. Students will actively manage diverse patient populations, including those from underserved and socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds, encountering a wide array of acute and chronic medical conditions. Through direct patient care, interdisciplinary collaboration, and structured preceptor guidance, students will refine core clinical skills such as history taking, physical examinations, diagnostic reasoning, and evidence-based management. The rotation will emphasize integrating the social determinants of health, system-based practice, and interprofessional collaboration into patient care with specific focus on care transitions: students will participate specifically in interdisciplinary team discharges from the hospital, and subsequently post-discharge ambulatory visits in which they will be exposed to virtual care (telemedicine), assess for social needs, and link patients to community resources all in an effort to smooth care transitions. Throughout the rotation, professionalism, self-reflection, and personal development will be fostered to help students build resilience, improve communication skills, and gain insight into the complexities of delivering equitable, patient-centered care in a variety of healthcare settings. This elective presents an excellent opportunity for students to advance their clinical acumen while focusing on community health.