In addition, the student should recognize common pediatric complaints and have an approach for management. The Primary Care Core Clerkship consists of a year-long preceptorship with a primary care physician and a series of interdisciplinary seminars. As a longitudinal clerkship, this course enables students to participate in the continuity of care of patients, establish a meaningful relationship with a practicing primary care clinician, and integrate all of the training from other core clerkships into an entire third-year experience. Each student is assigned to a preceptor who will mentor the student for the year. Preceptor sites vary widely and include a broad range of primary care settings.
Students spend one afternoon per week, three times each month, working in their preceptor's office.
Ideally, students will follow a number of the same patients or families over the course of the year. This will provide a continuity experience that is lacking in the remainder of the curriculum. One afternoon each month, groups of ten students meet for seminars led by one or two faculty members. Students are evaluated along a number of criteria, including preceptorship experience, seminar participation, performance on the mid-term and final examinations, case presentations, homework problem sets, and patient log. The Psychiatry Core Clerkship consists of six weeks of intensive inpatient psychiatry located at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center, UCSD Medical Center, or San Diego Naval Hospital.