Core Internal Medicine Clerkship Program

Curriculum Details of Core Internal Medicine Clerkship Program

The Medicine Clerkship is part of a 12-week core clerkship shared with family medicine and geriatrics. This rotation occurs during the third year of medical school.

Students are placed at either UH Cleveland Medical Center/Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center (UH/VA), Metro or Cleveland Clinic hospitals for this rotation. Students doing their third year medicine rotation at UH/VA spend six weeks on the inpatient services at either University Hospitals or the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, along with one week as part of our medicine night float team and one week at a medical ambulatory site affiliated with either University Hospitals or the VA.

During each of these medical student rotations, students are expected to be fully engaged evaluating patients. Students will perform histories, physical exams, gather data and start to use clinical reasoning to develop differential diagnoses and proper assessments and plans for different patient problems.

Didactic sessions covering common internal medicine topics as well as quality and safety issues are spread throughout the rotation in an effort to complement clinical activity.

During the inpatient rotation our students are assigned a specific teaching attending who will be certain that the oral and written presentations are on target as well as to help refine the clinical reasoning skills of the student. A patient bedside conference, Grand Rounds, Morbidity & Mortality conference and Intern Morning Report help to round out the academic rigor of the rotation.

Students Provided Access to National Patient Cases

Additionally, students have access to a national bank of computer patient case simulations for online tutorials to supplement the ward time. A core topics list serves to focus student effort on important aspects of internal medicine as well as provides a framework for ward-centered learning. In addition to ward rounds and the didactic conferences noted above, students are required to return to the medical school on Friday afternoons for their SAMI sessions.

Student Evaluations Combine Clinical and Compassion of Care

The assessment by the faculty and house staff of a student's ability to function as an effective and compassionate physician remains the cornerstone of the evaluation. The National Board of Medical Examiners Internal Medicine shelf test is administered at the end of the Clerkship to assess each student's fund of knowledge as well. After completion of the third year Internal Medicine Rotation, our students are ready to take on the responsibilities of a fourth-year acting intern, taking on greater responsibilities in patient care management, similar to a regular intern.

CANVAS is the current learning management system in use at Case Western Reserve University. As such, a more comprehensive review and details of the core 1 clerkship can be found on the Case Western Reserve School of Medicine CANVAS platform.