The M3 Clinical Clerkship in Family Medicine introduces students to the basics of family medicine and provides exposure to various members of the primary care team. Students learn to appreciate the family physician's role and how he or she provides health-care related services. Students learn from family medicine faculty, residents, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants. In addition, they learn informally from other office staff, such as nurses, dietitians, patient educators, social workers, physical therapists, and office managers.
Increase in biomedical knowledge has sometimes occurred at the expense of physicians understanding the patient as an individual person whose surroundings, perceptions, and needs are unique. With disease patterns shifting to chronic and lifestyle-induced illnesses, understanding the patient in his or her environment has become imperative. This understanding requires knowledge of a patient's personal habits, and the home and community in which he or she lives.
This approach in the delivery of health care presents opportunities and challenges to providers. Family medicine is the one specialty that is best equipped to meet these challenges. Our specialty is founded on the principle of continuous care, with patient, family, and community as the focus. This clerkship is designed to enable students, as future health care providers, to better understand the central role of family medicine in the delivery of health care.
Students are introduced to the complex decision-making processes used in the ambulatory setting. Students see how family physicians develop care plans that meet the needs of the individual patient, by not only considering the patient's history, but also their own relationship with the patient, as well as how the patient's home and personal environment affects his or her well-being. Prevention and health promotion are introduced into daily aspects of care.
The clerkship also exposes students to the relationships a family physician develops within the community and with other health care providers. Only through an integrated, multidisciplinary approach can physicians effect the social and economic changes necessary to ultimately succeed in meeting the patient's biomedical and psychosocial needs.
A family physician must integrate specific knowledge and skills relevant to the practice of family medicine into a patient-centered approach to care. All physicians must become self-directed learners to stay abreast of rapidly changing technology in health care. The clerkship provides students a chance to further develop their self-directed learning skills. Students must develop a keen sense of observation and self-awareness in order to identify learning needs, as well as the dedication and perseverance to fill these needs.
Students learn techniques used in various patient encounters, management, and treatment of common diseases, and are exposed to basic office management and procedures. Most importantly, students learn to respect the caring attitude family physicians have toward their patients. At the conclusion of the rotation, students should appreciate this unique characteristic of family medicine: the focus is on the patient, not on the disease.
Janice Daugherty, MD
Clerkship Director
