Internal Medicine Clerkship: Student Learning Outcomes
UNR Med Year 3 Structure
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- History and Physical Examination:
- Students should be able to elicit the patient's chief complaint, history of present illness, past medical history, social, family, occupational histories and complete a review of systems.
- Perform a physical examination in a logical, organized and thorough manner.
- Demonstrate the ability to construct an assessment and plan for an individual patient organized by problem, discussing the likely diagnosis and plan of treatment.
- Demonstrate the ability to record the history and physical in a legible and logical manner.
- Demonstrate the ability to write admission and daily progress notes on the ward and appropriate outpatient progress notes.
- Case Presentation:
- Orally present a new patient's case in a focused manner, chronologically developing the present illness, summarizing the pertinent positive and negative findings as well as the differential diagnosis and plans for further testing and treatment. Reading your H&P is not an adequate case presentation!
- Orally present a follow-up patient's case, focusing on current problems, physical findings, and diagnostic and treatment plans.
- Diagnostic Decision Making:
- Formulate a differential diagnosis based on the findings from the history and physical examination.
- Use the differential diagnosis to help guide diagnostic test ordering and its sequence.
- Participate in selecting the diagnostic studies with the greatest likelihood of useful results.
- Recognize that tests are limited and the impact of false positives/false negatives on information.
- Test Interpretation:
- Describe the range of normal variation in the results of a complete blood count, blood smear, electrolyte panel, general chemistry panel, electrocardiogram, chest X-ray, urinalysis, pulmonary function tests, and body fluid cell counts.
- Describe the results of the above tests in terms of the related pathophysiology.
- Understand the importance of personally reviewing X-ray films, blood smears, etc. to assess the accuracy and importance of the results.
- Therapeutic Decision Making:
- Describe factors that frequently alter the effects of medications, including drug interactions and compliance problems.
- Formulate an initial therapeutic plan.
- Access and utilize, when appropriate, information resources to help develop an appropriate and timely therapeutic plan.
- Write prescriptions accurately.
- Counsel patients about how to take their medications and what to expect when they take their medications, including beneficial outcomes and potential adverse effects.
- Monitor patient response to therapy.
- Communication:
- Work with individuals of other professions to maintain a climate of mutual respect and shared values.
- Explain the roles and responsibilities of other providers and how the team works together to provide care, promote health, and prevent disease.
- Communicate with patients, families, communities, and professionals in health and other fields in a responsive and responsible manner that supports a team approach to the promotion and maintenance of health and the prevention and treatment of disease.
- Integrate the knowledge and experience of health and other professions to inform health and care decisions, while respecting patient and community values and priorities/preferences for care.
- Perform effectively on teams and in different team roles in a variety of settings.