The clinical experience consists of direct patient care under the supervision of house staff and faculty attending physicians for patients with a wide variety of illnesses, supplemented by ward rounds and group conferences. The Internal Medicine Clerkship consists of eight weeks devoted to ward medicine and one month in the ambulatory setting. The Surgery Clerkship includes six weeks devoted to General Surgery and six weeks split among any three of the surgical subspecialties, which include anesthesiology, cardiothoracic surgery, orthopaedics, otolaryngology, pediatric surgery, peripheral vascular surgery, plastic surgery, transplant surgery, and urology. The Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship consists of three weeks of Obstetrics and three weeks of Gynecology, with some exposure to the Obstetrics and Gynecology Subspecialties, including maternal-fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, and reproductive endocrinology.
Patient evaluation is the central experiential and didactic core of the Psychiatry Clerkship.
On the Pediatric Clerkship, students divide their time between ward rotations and an outpatient experience. The Clinical Neuroscience Clerkship incorporates neurosurgery, neurology, and ophthalmology. The overall goal of the Primary Care Clerkship is to provide students with an opportunity to acquire knowledge and develop clinical and interpersonal skills applicable to both primary care and the broad realm of practice in the ambulatory setting. A second goal is to offer a stimulating and resourceful learning environment in which students approaching graduation can identify and pursue educational goals relating to their own needs, interests, and career objectives. At the practice site, students are assigned a principal preceptor with whom they meet at the beginning for orientation, in the middle and at the end of the clerkship for feedback.