Contact Us
UTHSC College of Medicine
Phone:901-448-5529
Fax: 901-448-7683
Executive Dean:
David M. Stern, M.D.
Clerkships: Family Medicine
Memphis
Clerkship Director: Jennifer Goodfred D.O.
Director of Predoctoral Education: Jennifer Goodfred D.O.
Administrative Director: Franklin Williams, M.Ed. (901) 448-5217
Clerkship Coordinator: Ms. Marilyn Ward, (901)448-6032
Website: http://www.uthsc.edu/fammed/
Students experience traditional office-based practice under the supervision of a community-based family physician preceptor. With the office practice as a base, the family physician serves all aspects of patient care involving both inpatient and outpatient settings, ranging from the hospital to the nursing home. Students are placed with family physicians who practice the full breadth of the discipline, including obstetrical care, whenever feasible.
The department maintains a wide array of approved clinical training sites throughout the state of Tennessee. The department works closely with students to identify mutually agreeable clinical assignments that are located throughout the state. Student hardships will be considered in making the final assignment.
The clerkship is a full-time learning experience, typically mirroring the family physician preceptor and including both weekend responsibilities and night call. Students have several written assignments to complete as well as assigned readings during the two months.
Clerkship Goals And Objectives
The goal of the Family Medicine Clerkship is
to teach the concept and practice of family-centered primary health care in
the ambulatory, inpatient, and extended care settings in urban, rural, and/or
inner-city populations. Upon completing the clerkship, the student should be able to:
- Identify the etiology, appropriate intervention, treatment, and possible complications of patients presenting with common problems in the clinical setting;
- Describe the advantages of an integrated and ongoing physician-patient relationship and the value of a centralized approach in an ambulatory setting to clinical case management;
- Explain the role of health assessment and health maintenance in primary care practice for the prevention of illness;
- Discuss the economic, medico- legal, and personnel issues typically encounteredby family physicians.
The clerkship accomplishes these objectives primarily through supervised clinical experiences. In addition, the tasks include directed readings, didactic sessions, regular conferences with the preceptor, a student presentation, and the final examination.
At the end of this rotation each student should feel comfortable:
- Critically reviewing literature for implementation of evidence based medical practice.
- Reading an ECG and formulating a management plan for acute myocardial infarction.
- Interpreting radiographic studies and formulating a differential diagnosis and appropriate management plan.
- Identifying and managing common ambulatory pediatric and adult problems.
- Discussing appropriate preventive health interventions.
- Identifying and working up a depressed patient.
- Writing prescriptions.
- Assessing and treating sports injuries.
- Developing goals and objectives for presenting clinical topics in front of peers.
- Understanding and performing evidence based medical approach to clinical problems, including relevant literature review.
- Applying concepts of palliative medicine in patient care including facilitation of ante mortem care discussing in the outpatient setting.
Attendance
Attendance in all aspects of the Clerkship is MANDATORY. There
will be sign-in sheets for each lecture to insure required attendance. Emergency
absences will be considered on a case-by-case basis, but each must be cleared
in advance by Dr. Goodfred.
Grading
Clinical Performance 50%
Written Exam (NBME Shelf Exam) 30%
PowerPoint Presentation 20%
Preceptor Assignments and Evaluations
Every effort will be made to match
the student with the requested preceptor or geographic area; however, once
the student has been assigned to a preceptor, assignments will not be changed.
Chattanooga
Clerkship Director: J. Mack Worthington, MD, Professor and Chair, Department of Family Medicine
Administrative Contact: Elissa McCoy (email: elissa.mccoy@erlanger.org)
Office Phone: (423) 778-2957
Department email: utfammed@erlanger.org
Medical student education is a major focus of the Department of Family Medicine in Chattanooga. The goals, objectives, and projects for the Family Medicine Clerkship are comparable at all UT sites (Memphis, Knoxville, and Chattanooga). An experienced faculty gives the lectures and the number of students is small, providing an environment that allows students to interact with the faculty. A maximum of four students can register for each eight week block for the Chattanooga Family Medicine Clerkship. The rotation is divided into two four week blocks one with the inpatient service the other primarily ambulatory. There are two options available for the type of ambulatory experience in which the student may participate. These include the student working with the faculty and residents at the UT Family Practice Center or with a community family physician. Both options provide excellent educational opportunities for students to learn comprehensive and compassionate care of the whole family. Students are involved in patient care with their attending physicians (and/or residents) in the outpatient setting as well as with hospitalized patients. In addition, they attend resident conferences and have informal teaching interactions with the faculty members – including community physicians. Throughout the rotation they are offered the opportunity to participate in ultrasound clinics and the weekly prenatal clinic.
Students should expect to participate on night call activities to enhance their learning opportunities.
Continuing medical education and life-long learning are emphasized by requiring students to read daily and report on their reading.
The Chattanooga Campus, through the generosity of the University and Erlanger, provides living arrangements (modestly furnished apartments with utilities, basic cable TV, and high-speed internet) at no cost to the student, as well as funding toward meals ($50 per week via a swipe card), and free parking adjacent to the hospital.
The Department of Family Medicine in Chattanooga sponsors one of nine residency programs based at Erlanger. The Department of Family Medicine was founded with the purpose of providing residents and medical students with the cognitive and procedural skills necessary to provide excellent care for their patients. The department focuses on giving the very best care to our patients and seeks to attract residents and students who are excited about learning. The Family Medicine Residency is a three-year program that provides training to 18 residents (six at each level). The UT Family Practice Center is a premier health care facility, offering quality patient care through 20,000+ patient visits last year. The center is located just across the street from the primary training site for the Chattanooga Campus, Erlanger Health System
For other information about our clerkships (housing, meals, etc.) or residency programs, go to utcomchatt.org/medicalstudents 
or utcomchatt.org/gme.
Knoxville
Clerkship Director: M. David Stockton, M.D., M.P.H. dstockto@utmck.edu
Contact: Missy Maples mmaples@utmck.edu
This is a face to face clinical rotation offered in the fall and spring and receiving 14 credit hours.
Third year medical students at UT Knoxville are integrated into a teaching team of 24 resident physicians and over 37 community and academic faculty (MDs, DOs, PhDs, MPHs, and RDs) in the Department of Family Medicine. Students care for patients either in a community-based family physician office or in the University Family Physicians clinic, attend case discussion groups, give patient presentations, co-manage patients with residents and faculty on the Family Medicine Inpatient Service, and see patients at a variety of community sites. Faculty-led workshops and small group talks assist students in learning to advance their interpretation skills for ECG's and chest x-rays, manage common complaints and diseases of adults and children, and decide on appropriate cancer screening strategies among other skill building exercises. Students also, make supervised acute care nursing home visits and provide patient care in a free Clinic for the working uninsured, and experience learning opportunities with special outpatient populations. Two weeks of inpatient care at UT Medical Center includes several call nights with a supervising family medicine resident. Students are introduced to outpatient (ex. Exercise treadmills, colposcopy and LEEP, and no-scalpel vasectomies) and hospital based procedures. A small group presentation regarding a clinical question from their outpatient work further orients students to Evidence-based Medicine (EBM) and assists them in developing presentation skills.
Since family physicians address the diverse health needs of both individuals and families, the learning experience with clinical preceptors provides the optimal opportunity to consolidate and integrate information from the biological, clinical, and behavioral sciences learned in the M1 and M2 years. The majority of student's time (approximately 6 weeks) will be spent exploring the professional life of their family physician preceptor, primarily through supervised patient care.
For more information about the Knoxville Family Medicine clerkship, please contact David Stockton, MD, Predoctoral Director, dstockto@utmck.edu; Phone: (865) 305-9352; Fax: (865) 305-6532. For information about our M4 rotation opportunities and our residency program, please visit http://gsm.utmck.edu/fammed.
