Seminars

Systems based seminars will be held on Wednesday afternoons from 2:00-4:00pm in the family medicine predoctoral conference room located in the Department of Family Medicine administrative building. (1513 E. Cleveland Avenue, Bldg 100, Suite 300-A East Point, GA 30344). Seminar facilitators may vary by rotation and will depend upon faculty schedules.

Seminar Topics are listed below:
Week 1: Health Maintenance and Disease Prevention
Week 2: Gynecology
Week 3: Cardiovascular
Week 4: Pediatrics
Week 5: Musculoskeletal
Week 6: Gastrointestinal
Week 7: Neuro/Psych

Clinical

Students will participate in inpatient, outpatient, rural health and obstetric clinical care. Clinic faculty will guide student involvement in history taking, physical examination and other investigations and treatment in accordance with the objectives of the course. Clinic faculty will discuss the patient's history, eliciting of physical signs and management with the students assigned to her/him. The Faculty will be required to submit a comprehensive assessment of the student using the Preceptor Evaluation of Student Performance evaluation form.

Our students benefit from having the unique experience of both urban and rural clinical exposures during a single eight week clerkship. Each student spends 3½ weeks at rural clinical sites and 3½ weeks in the urban setting. In doing so, students have the opportunity to appreciate the differences between practicing in these two settings. Some of these differences include socioeconomic factors unique to rural settings that negatively impact patient's health as well as impacting the approach to their care; access to care; infections and injuries related to agricultural occupations that would be unique to patients in rural settings; and differences in readily available resources to the physicians caring for patients in these settings. By providing this exposure and developing the appreciation for the healthcare need that exists in rural areas during the third year of medical school, it is thought that more students may ultimately decide to practice in rural areas. In the long term, this may help to address the shortage of physicians in rural areas, particularly in rural Georgia. At the rural sites, the student's daily clinical activities will mirror that of his/her preceptor. Primarily, the student will participate in supervised patient care in an ambulatory family medicine practice. Additionally, the student will accompany the preceptor on hospital/nursing home rounds and house calls and may take call with the preceptor when these experiences are available.

fmCASES

fmCASES is a Computer Assisted Instruction tool which uses interactive cases to cover the nationally accepted core curriculum for Family Medicine clerkship students. Students are assigned to complete 4-5 cases during weeks 1-7 of the clerkship. Usernames and pass-codes for access to fmCASES will be distributed during Year 3 orientation. During Clerkship orientation, ability to access fmCASES will be confirmed. Other computer based learning experiences will also be available to students while at rural clinical sites. 

Each student will be assigned to one day of call which will coincide with the residents' schedule for admitting patients to the hospitalist service. During the call day, the student will participate in the admission history and physical exam of one patient, discuss the assessment and plan with the inpatient team and write a full history and physical on that patient. The student will then complete an inpatient project on the patient as described below. The student will be expected to stay at the hospital until 10:00pm or until they have admitted a patient.

Inpatient Project

The student will perform an admission history and physical on one patient. The student will then complete an inpatient project on this patient. The project will consist of a paper which is to include a description of additional information that would be helpful to have from the patient's primary care physician; psychosocial circumstances that contributed to the patient's presentation and must be considered in the approach to the patient including family, employment/career, habits, finances, patient's knowledge of his/her disease, etc.; inpatient interventions/care; resources that might be needed for the patient; and discharge planning. Projects are to be presented during the inpatient project seminar which is to be facilitated by the inpatient attending.

OB Delivery

During the clerkship orientation, each student will be assigned to a patient who is expected to deliver sometime during the clerkship. The student will participate in the labor and delivery of the patient and will write a delivery note after the delivery.

Home Visit

Students will accompany Susan Robinson, PA on a home visit for a homebound patient. The student will participate in the visit and will be responsible for a visit write-up as outlined by Ms. Robinson.

Community Outreach

This is an integral part of the course. The community outreach component of the rotation typically occurs on a Saturday during the rotation. The Program Manager will notify students of the date and time for the community outreach project at the beginning of the rotation. The purpose of this component of the course is to enable the students to interact with the community in discussing relevant health issues and performing health screenings.

Patient Log

Each student is required to keep a patient log. The patient's initials, diagnosis and treatment should be recorded in New Innovations and sent to the teaching physician for confirmation. A written log is to be kept while at the rural sites and is to be signed by the rural preceptor. Although the patient log is not included in the grade calculation a minimum of 60 patients must be seen and documented to pass the Family Medicine and Rural Health Clerkship. Students will be contacted at the midpoint of the clerkship to discuss their progress in meeting the requirement of seeing 60 patients. If based on mid-clerkship numbers, a student is predicted not to see 60 patients by the end of the clerkship, clinic assignments may be adjusted to ensure exposure to clinics with adequate patient volumes.

Noon Conference

Students will attend weekly departmental grand rounds (didactic sessions) on Wednesday afternoons from 12:30pm-1:30pm in the main conference room of the Dept. of Family Medicine administrative offices.

OSCE

An OSCE is conducted on the last day of the clerkship. While performance on the OSCE is not included in the calculation of the final grade, completion of the OSCE is required to pass the course. Any student who does not complete the OSCE during the FMRH Clerkship will receive a grade of Incomplete until he/she participates in the FMRH OSCE.

All assignments must be submitted by the last day of the clerkship.