Ambulatory Medicine (formerly Medicine II)

The Ambulatory Medicine Clerkship is a selective clerkship offered to students in their fourth year. The goal of the clerkship is to introduce students to the practice of Internal Medicine primarily in the ambulatory environment through experiential learning and didactic sessions.

The clerkship introduces students to complex outpatient medical conditions and preventative medicine topics while improving skills in efficient, targeted history-taking and physical diagnosis.  The curriculum aims to develop communication, leadership, teaching, and evidence-based practice skills that are integral to the practice of ambulatory Internal Medicine.

Patient care experiences in primary care and internal medicine subspecialties take place at Boston Medical Center and our affiliated sites including neighborhood health centers and clinics in the VA Health System.

By the end of the Ambulatory Medicine Clerkship, students will be able to:

1. Demonstrate techniques to communicate effectively and respectfully with patients and families about health-related lifestyle choices, medical conditions, and preventive health screening.
2. Identify and implement recommended screening to prevent disease in adult subpopulations (e.g. patients of varying age, gender, ethnicity and race, sexual preference, cultural background, underlying disease states, etc).
3. Demonstrate the ability to perform, document, and present targeted history and physical exams based upon a patient’s medical complaint for an outpatient visit.
4. Propose a differential diagnosis, initial work-up, and management plan for acute and chronic outpatient medical issues based upon elicited patient history, physical exams, and interpretation of testing.
5. Create and lead a workshop session for peer learners in an area of research, communication, quality improvement, or clinical decision-making.
6. Analyze and critically appraise biomedical literature to answer clinical questions for patient care.
7. Formulate and reflect upon personal learning goals. Reflect on progress made and ongoing opportunities to achieve personal learning goals in the domains of medical knowledge, clinical skills, and attitudes.
8. Recognize and describe the psycho-social, emotional, cultural, legal/ethical and economic dimensions of health and illness as experienced by individual patients.
9. Demonstrate professionalism by attending all scheduled clinical sessions and teaching conferences except as specifically excused by the clerkship directors or administrator, and by comporting him/herself according to high professional standards (e.g. respect for the human dignity and rights of all patients, respect for other members of the health care team and administrative staff, compassion and empathy, honesty, beneficence, non-malfeasance, privacy/confidentiality.