8 weeks
Clerkship Director
Amar Kohli, MD
Department of Medicine
kohlia@upmc.edu
Clerkship Co-Director
Erika Hoffman, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
erika.hoffman@va.gov
Clerkship Co-Director
Adam Yates, MD
Associate Professor
Department of Emergency Medicine
yatesam@upmc.edu
Clerkship Co-Director
Brian Heist, MD
Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
heistb@upmc.edu
Clerkship Co-Director
Christopher Schott, MD, MS
Assistant Professor
Department of Critical Care Medicine
schottck@upmc.edu
Course Description
This 8-week interdisciplinary clerkship is divided into two blocks of 4 weeks each. During each block the student is assigned to an inpatient rotation at a local hospital. During this inpatient rotation, students are assigned their own patients and apply their clinical skills under resident and faculty supervision. Students learn how to take an accurate and pertinent history, conduct a physical examination, recognize patterns of illness, and acquire approaches to disease management. All students participate in four critical care medicine simulation sessions at the WISER Center, where they have hands-on experience evaluating and treating acute cardiopulmonary conditions.
Course Objectives
- Outline the diagnostic evaluation and initial management of common medical symptoms.
- Demonstrate understanding of the historical features, physical examination findings and underlying pathophysiology of common medical conditions, and particularly of disease processes present in encountered patients.
- Formulate an appropriate differential diagnosis, and create and implement the diagnostic evaluation and therapeutic plan for encountered patients.
- Recognize the need for patient resuscitation and initiate appropriate initial treatment in unstable patients.
Clerkship locations include UPMC Montefiore, UPMC Shadyside, UPMC Mercy, and the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.
Educational Methods
- Inpatient care
- Lectures
- Case-based workshops
- Simulation sessions
- Standardized patient sessions
- Student teaching attending conferences
Evaluation
Each 4-week Clinical Block contributes 40% of the clerkship grade. The Clinical Block grades are from the evaluations of the ward attending (50% of the block grade), the student teaching attending (25% of the block grade), and the resident (25% of the block grade). The final examination is a National Board of Medical Examiners web-based subject exam that constitutes 20% of the clerkship grade.
Grading: The clerkship is graded Honors, High Satisfactory, Satisfactory, Low Satisfactory, Unsatisfactory.