About the Clerkship

Tulane's Family Medicine Clerkship is a 6 weeks experience in Family Medicine required of all students during the final two years in medical school. The Clerkship was first offered as an pilot-elective in the 1998-1999 academic year, again as an expanded elective for the 1999-2000 year and has been required of all students since July 2000. Our faculty are dedicated to providing a true community-based, outpatient, "real-world" experience which is unique among the clinical experiences students receive at Tulane Medical School.

Family Medicine is the second largest discipline in the United States and the only discipline exclusively and entirely dedicated to primary care. Achieving Board Certification in Family Medicine requires completion of a 3-year residency following medical school and passing a board-certification examination. There are more ambulatory visits in the U.S. to family physicians than any other specialty, and a family physician is the most common individual provider identified as the source of 'usual care' in the U.S. The spectrum of health care and disease in the office of a family physician more closely resembles that in the community at large than does health care and disease in specialty settings. Hence, a Family Medicine experience is core to a well-rounded medical education. Yet, a majority of training for today's medical students still takes place in a tertiary care setting, with the sub-specialist physician as the prevalent teacher. Students have relatively few chances to see primary care role models and to learn about the place of the generalist in the health care system. This Clerkship affords students the opportunity for just these things.

The Department has developed a network of over 150 dedicated, talented Clinical Faculty who generously give their time and experience to our students. Spread throughout the region from Nachitoches and Alexandria in the North and West to Pensacola in the East, our clinical preceptors donate their time and provide a valuable one-on-one, daily mentoring relationship which students repeatedly cite as the most valuable aspect of the entire clerkship. For most students, the opportunity to work directly with an attending physician every day, all day, occurs at no other point in the clinical years than in Family Medicine and we know it provides powerful opportunities for growth and learning.

During the Clerkship, students live near the preceptor's office, in hospital rooms or apartments furnished by the local community. Students adopt the schedule of the Family Physician with whom they are working and "do what she does". Students are encouraged to participate in the full spectrum of Family Medicine as their particular preceptor's practice affords: traditional adult medicine, care of children, women's health, maternity care, nursing home care and geriatrics, school-based medicine, sports medicine, minor surgery, hospital rounds and the list goes on. Many of our preceptors are important figures in the communities in which they live. Opportunities for community involvement, particularly in the more rural locations, are available for the motivated student.

Our faculty has designed a thoughtful curriculum based on sound educational principles. The curriculum is rather structured and students are expected to maintain logs of their particular experiences. The curriculum is based around a list of "Common Problems", which is reinforced by the textbook for the clerkship, Sloane's Principles of Family Medicine, 4th Edition. The block begins with a 2-day orientation and ends with each student's 15-minute presentation of their clerkship project, which is explained in more detail in the clerkship handbook. The goal of the project is to introduce and refine a student's research skills, to teach evidence-based medicine principles in the investigation a topic of interest to the student and/or preceptor and, finally, to allow students to practice giving a polished presentation in front of peers.

As of the Spring of 2004, the Clerkship is beginning a transformation using web-based and other information-technology solutions to providing students with the tools and information we think important in more efficient and interesting ways. In this effort, as with all aspects of the Clerkship, the faculty and staff of the Department welcome student comments and involvement as true partners in their medical education.

For more information, students are encouraged to consult the Clerkship Student Handbook.