Goals of the Internal Medicine Clerkship
- To learn a comprehensive, as well as a focused, approach to the evaluation and care of the adult medical patient.
- To acquire basic knowledge in the discipline of Internal Medicine, including diagnosis, therapy, and prevention.
- To improve skills in the following:
- Taking a history and performing a physical exam
- Generating a problem list and prioritizing its components
- Developing a patient-physician relationship (communication, partnership, education)
- Developing productive working relationships with colleagues and other health care workers
- Medical communications (oral presentations, written medical record including complete histories and physical exams, progress notes, problem lists, flow charts, etc.)
- To learn how to generate a differential diagnosis and how to use it in the evaluation of symptoms and findings.
- To integrate logic and problem-solving skills with an increasing knowledge base.
- To develop and/or apply skills in self-directed learning.