Leadership The goal of the Department of Family and Community Medicine is to prepare medical students for family-oriented health care delivery and to give students an understanding of the family as a basic unit of society. The program is broad, and it emphasizes comprehensive medical care for the whole family. Together, this team exposes students to the role of the physician in the medical community as well as in the patient community. The department offers two required courses for first year students. Working With Patients, taught in the winter of the first year, introduces students to methods for dealing with patients.
Students rotate through the local community and surrounding areas.
A clerkship in the third year exposes students to family practice in a clinical setting. This course is offered during the summer months following the first year of medical school. Students are matched with a family physician in Texas and spend four weeks working with this doctor. The course is designed to improve the students' clinical skills.