David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Ambulatory Medicine (Drew)
  REV DATE: 1/8/2008

 

Ambulatory Internal Medicine Clerkship

(AM019)

A required four-week clinical clerkship in Ambulatory Medicine is offered at the Martin Luther King Jr. Ambulatory Care Center (MLK MACC) that offers a wide variety of patient demographics.

The goal of this clerkship is for the student to learn about the out-patient care of patients with complex medical conditions, and sensitive to psychosocial, ethical, and financial issues. In addition to general internal medicine including primary prevention, common problems encountered in subspecialty clinics such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, kidney diseases, cardiac diseases, endocrinological illnesses, oncological and hematological conditions, pulmonary diseases, gastrointestinal disorders and infections such as HIV/AIDS are emphasized.

Our clerkship provides an opportunity for students to rotate through ambulatory clinics which include general internal medicine and their above sub-specialties. 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. Much of the teaching is conducted in the clinic by faculty. All the students are scheduled to attend didactic sessions at UCLA every Friday. These sessions are designed to be interactive and to promote enjoyment in learning. There are no calls.

The final evaluation of the student is based on clinical performance evaluated by Mini CEX forms completed by licensed supervising physicians (one per week), a final written exam and participation in the didactic sessions.

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

Criteria for Letters of Distinction

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

  1. The marks on the mini CEX evaluation forms must be all “outstanding”.
  2. The final exam grade must be 80% or above.
  3. The group participation must be excellent during the Friday sessions.