Medicine 401 is a clerkship designed to teach the student the basic skills of clinical medicine. During the 12 week course, the student will cycle through one outpatient ambulatory care rotation and two inpatient hospital-based rotations.
Major emphasis is placed on acquiring an understanding of the pathophysiology of disease processes.
On the ambulatory care rotation, the student will be assigned to various community-based, UCSD, VA, and Mercy Hospital outpatient clinics, as well as the private offices of practicing internists in the community. During the inpatient rotations, three to four patients a week are evaluated by each student and, with members of the ward staff, differential diagnoses are formulated and plans for diagnosis and therapy are organized. Attendings and preceptors meet regularly with the students to discuss patient management and to assess the student's progress. Attendance at Grand Rounds and other conferences offered by the Department of Medicine is expected. Constant effort is made to integrate the concepts of human biology, introduced during the first two years, into the clinical setting.