Family Medicine Clerkship Course Description
 (FM01 - Drew/UCLA students only)

A required four-week clinical clerkship in Family Medicine is offered at the Hubert Humphrey Comprehensive Health Center which offers a wide variety of different patient demographics.

The goal of this clerkship is for the student to learn family-centered primary health care that is humanistic, comprehensive, cost-effective, continuous, and sensitive to psychosocial, ethical, and financial issues.  Because family physicians take care of families, the clerkship will include family dynamics, the family's influence on health, and the impact of illness on the family.

Our clerkship provides an opportunity for students to learn about the diagnosis and management of patients with common problems.  Students will be expected to learn a comprehensive approach to the patient with these problems that entails consideration of etiology, incidence, pathophysiology, clinical presentation, course, prognosis, treatment, and appropriate aspects of patient education, disease prevention, and health promotion. Students should develop sensitivity to social, familial, ethical, legal, cultural, and economic issues encountered in an ambulatory setting.

The clerkship is a predominantly ambulatory-based experience.  Students see patients within the ambulatory setting.  All the students are scheduled to attend lectures, discussions and workshops held each morning at the clinic. These sessions are designed to be interactive and to promote enjoyment in learning. All the students are scheduled to attend didactic sessions at UCLA every Friday. There are no calls. 

The final evaluation of the student is based on clinical performance at the assigned site, a final written exam, participation in the didactic group, and a case write-up.

Evaluation and Grading:

Students evaluate the clerkship through the standard UCLA evaluation system. Feedback is provided to the clerkship twice in a year.

Faculty evaluation of students and Clerkship Director grading is done via the electronic evaluation system. The criteria used in determining the final grade are the clinical evaluation, oral presentation and a written examination. Mid-cycle evaluation of students and feedback is provided for improvement of performance.

Criteria for Letters of Distinction

In order to receive a Letter of Distinction in the Family Medicine Clerkship, the student must meet the following criteria:

• The student must pass the clinical component.
• The student must pass the written exam.  The final exam grade must be 85%  or above.
• The student must pass the Oral presentation with PowerPoint.
• The clerkship site director must nominate the student for a Letter of Distinction on the medical student evaluation form.
• The marks on the medical student evaluation must be in the highly outstanding range.