Welcome to the Primary Care Medicine Clerkship, a required course for the senior medical school class. During this four-week block, students will be exposed to a wide array of primary care experiences.

The heart of the students' experience is individual time with faculty preceptors in the clinic. In advance, students will choose whether they wish to work with a primary care internist, pediatrician, or family practitioner in that faculty member's private practice. Students will work one-on-one with the attending for the month. They will see the patient on their own, present to their preceptor, and then return to the patient to initiate the diagnostic and therapeutic plans. Students will keep in touch with patients during the month to provide them reports of labs and x-rays. They will also have an opportunity to see patients again during necessary follow-up appointments. Each student will work up 2-3 patients per half day.

With a few exceptions each student will be assigned to a community preceptor with or without additional clinics with preceptors on campus. The goal is to have students work with less than four different preceptors during the rotation to allow continuity of teaching and patient care.

Students' education is supplemented by a series of interactive lectures and conferences, by provision of a Primary Care Outpatient Manual for further reading, and by a one-day experience with Home Health or Alive Hospice visiting patients in their home environments.