Undergraduate Medical Education

The fourth year is composed of six 4-week clerkships, one week of DRS/PCC, and four 4-week electives. These clerkships allow for increased responsibility in patient care as well as the opportunity to pursue areas of individual interest. The electives provide students with the opportunity to select the clinical or basic science experiences to best meet their particular career goals.

 

Clerkships	Duration
PCC/DRS	1 week
Ambulatory Medicine	4 weeks
Surgery Specialties	4 weeks
Specialty Clerkship	4 weeks
Senior Clerkship in Medicine	4 weeks
Senior Clerkship in any of the required M3 clerkships	4 weeks
Patient Safety/Quality Improvement	4 weeks
Required Electives*	16 weeks
Optional Electives	12 weeks
* Elective Programs: 16 weeks of half-time/full-time electives are required.(320 electives are available in Chattanooga, Jackson, Knoxville, Memphis, and Nashville.)

DRS/PCC1-3002/F (1 credit hour). The curriculum is designed as a continuing medical education (CME) model. The goal is to provide direction for students in developing the skills necessary to become life-long learners and the ability to share their learning as effective teachers in both the academic as well as the community setting. Successful completion of the M-4 LCP includes both required and optional didactic and experiential components.

Clerkship Descriptions

MED1-3002/F - Senior Clerkship in Medicine (7 credit hours). The Senior Clerkship in Medicine places the student in a more direct role in patient care similar to an internship, but closely supervised and directed. The senior clerkship student will record the principal database (with resident or faculty review and counter signature), develop an evaluation and treatment plan, and write orders on patients (to be reviewed, altered if necessary, and signed by the resident or faculty prior to implementation). The student is introduced to responsibility for inpatient care in a setting in which the student is the initial evaluator of the patient's problems as outlined in the general instructions. The student develops conceptual and manual skills for evaluation and care of internal medicine patients and becomes more familiar in dealing directly with hospital and other paramedical personnel with an appreciation for the team approach to patient care. The student participates in two-hour rounds at least four days per week with the attending physician assigned to the service and consults daily with the resident house staff on each assigned patient. This clerkship also is offered in Knoxville (MED2-3002/F), Chattanooga (MED3-3002/F), and Nashville (MED4-3002/F).

MED1-3003/F - Ambulatory Care (7 credit hours). The objectives of the ambulatory clerkship are to provide: 1) an in-depth orientation to the evaluation, management and long-term clinical course of common medical problems which are handled by internists; 2) guidelines for recognizing common clinical problems which may be cared for in an ambulatory setting versus those which require hospitalization and/or referral for specialty or subspecialty care; 3) instruction in the unique principles of successfully providing medical care in the ambulatory setting; and, 4) instruction in health maintenance, disease prevention, and relevant clinical epidemiology.

The student will work in a variety of clinical areas including general medicine clinics at the Regional Medical Center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center . There are also opportunities to participate in the Adult Special Care Clinic, Sickle Cell Clinic, Hypertension Clinic, and many of the subspecialty clinics such as Cardiology and Endocrinology. The student may spend some time with an internist in private practice. This clerkship also is offered in Knoxville (MED2-3003/F), and Chattanooga (MED3-3003/F).

SUR1-3002/F - Surgery Specialties (7 credit hours). This clerkship exposes the student to the Surgery Specialties of Orthopaedics, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology and Urology. The clerkship is available in Knoxville (SUR2-3002F), and it is anticipated that the clerkship will be available in Chattanooga in 2005.

Senior Clerkship (FME, MED, OB/GYN, PED, PSY/NEURO, SUR) (3010/F to 3012/F) (7 credit hours). Students are required to take a 4-week experience in any one of the core clerkships.

PSQ1-2002/F - Patient Safety, Quality Improvement Clerkship (7 credit hours). Students will strengthen their concern for the patient’s need to receive quality health care in a safe environment, develop strategies and tools to identify medical errors in patient care and weaknesses in the health care system, and apply those methods to address medical errors and system errors in the health care delivery system. Most students will elect to participate in a structured, longitudinal curriculum while performing stepwise work on a Patient Safety/Quality Improvement Project (PS/QI Project) under the tutelage of a quality improvement coach. Those students who do not participate in a longitudinal PS/QI Project and complete a project report will be required to participate in a 4-week block curriculum in February/March (Block 03) of their senior year. The clerkship is graded Pass/Fail.

SPE1-3002/F - Specialty Clerkship (7 credit hours). This clerkship is offered in each block throughout the calendar year.  Students will have a week each in Anesthesiology, Radiology, ICU and Palliative Care during the four-week clerkship.  The clerkship will be graded “Pass/Fail.” This clerkship is available in Knoxville (SPE2-3002/F) and Chattanooga (SPE3-3002/F).

Electives (7 credit hours each). Sixteen weeks of two-week (half-time) or four-week (full-time) elective work are required and normally taken during the senior year. Both basic science and clinical electives of varying lengths are offered in a variety of settings with maximal learning opportunities. During this time, each student has the opportunity to: 1) select experiences that meet individual career goals, 2) study in depth in a clinical or basic science area, and 3) have increased responsibility in patient care under the direct supervision of the faculty. Electives are offered by the University of Tennessee, UT-affiliated hospitals, and (with approval) at other accredited medical schools. The Elective Catalog is available at http://www.utmem.edu/Medicine/Acad_Affairs/UME/Clerkships/Catalog.doc