PA Curriculum-Clinical Year

This required 4-week clinical clerkship provides students with exposure to the principles and practice of obstetrics and gynecology, including health maintenance and screening. Emphasis is placed on caring for female patients across their life span, including menarche, family planning, childbearing years, perimenopause, menopause, and post-menopause. Students will learn how to recognize and treat sexually transmitted diseases, ovarian, breast, and uterine cancer, and evaluate and treat common ambulatory gynecologic problems.  Students will learn prenatal counseling and care and may have exposure to labor and delivery. They will participate in history-taking, physical examination, assessment and formulation of a plan and problem list, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, proper medical documentation, and reporting to the healthcare team as appropriate for the clerkship. During this clerkship, students may additionally participate in inpatient rounds, provide patient presentations to clinical team members, and perform bedside procedures. They will develop an understanding of how to function as part of the medical team, improve effective communication with the patient, the healthcare team, and the patient’s family.

This required 4-week clinical clerkship provides the student with exposure to the principles and practice of pediatric medicine in the ambulatory setting.  Students will gain experience caring for neonates, infants, children, and adolescents, providing parental education and guidance, recognizing the appropriate milestone, preventing illness, injury, and accidents, and providing care unique to the pediatric patient.   

Students will participate in history-taking, physical examination, assessment and formulation of a plan and problem list, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, proper medical documentation, and reporting to the healthcare team as appropriate for the clerkship. During this clerkship, students may additionally participate in inpatient rounds, provide patient presentations to clinical team members, and perform bedside procedures.  They will develop an understanding of how to function as part of the medical team, improve effective communication with the patient, the healthcare team, and the patient’s family.  

This required 4-week clinical clerkship provides students with exposure to the principles and practice of internal medicine.  Emphasis is placed on caring for the acutely and chronically ill adult patient who requires hospitalization.  Students will participate in admission history taking, physical examination, assessment and formulation of a plan and problem list, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, proper medical documentation, and reporting to the healthcare team as appropriate for the clerkship.  During this clerkship, students may additionally participate in inpatient rounds; provide patient presentations to clinical team members, and perform bedside procedures. Students will develop an understanding of how to function as part of the medical team, develop effective communication with the patient, the healthcare team, and the patient’s family.

This required 4-week clinical clerkship provides the student with exposure to the principles and practice of family medicine.  Emphasis is placed on disease prevention and health maintenance in adults and children. The students will develop an increased understanding of the social, economic, and environmental factors related to caring for the patient and extended family.  They will participate in history-taking, physical examination, assessment and formulation of a plan and problem list, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, proper medical documentation, and reporting to the healthcare team as appropriate for the clerkship.  During this clerkship, students may additionally participate in inpatient rounds, provide patient presentations to clinical team members, and perform bedside procedures. Students will develop an understanding of how to function as part of the medical team, develop effective communication with the patient, the healthcare team, and the patient’s family.

This required 4-week clinical clerkship provides students with further exposure to the principles and practice of Primary Care. Emphasis is placed on caring for patients with general medical problems in the outpatient or the inpatient setting. Students will participate in taking medical histories, physical examination, assessment and formulation of a plan and problem list, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, proper medical documentation, and reporting to the healthcare team as appropriate for the clerkship. During this clerkship, students may additionally participate in rounds; provide patient presentations to clinical team members, and perform procedures. Students will develop an understanding of how to function as part of the medical team, develop effective communication with the patient, the healthcare team, and the patient’s family.

These elective 4-week clinical clerkships provide the student with the opportunity to gain additional experience in one of the core clerkship areas or to supplement the foundational core clerkships with specialty disciplines in medicine and surgery. Emphasis is placed on the management of patients within the specialty discipline.  Students will utilize these electives to better understand how a primary care provider should manage a patient presenting with a disease/condition prior to specialty referral and upon follow up. They will participate in history-taking, physical examination, assessment and formulation of a plan and problem list, ordering and interpreting diagnostic tests, proper medical documentation, and reporting to the healthcare team as appropriate for the clerkship. During this clerkship, students may additionally participate in inpatient rounds, provide patient presentations to clinical team members, and perform bedside procedures. Students will develop an understanding of how to function as part of the medical team, develop effective communication with the patient, the healthcare team, and the patient’s family.

This is the first in a series of three courses designed to expand students’ abilities to critically review the medical literature.  The first semester provides students with the opportunity to pose a research question that is unsettled in the medical literature. Students read and interpret evidence-based medical literature and provide side-by-side comparisons of published literature that is applicable to their research questions with attention to study design, sample size, results, forms of bias, and applicability of the results. 

In the second of this three-part series, the students build from their literature review and learn the skill of succinctly summarizing the evidence-based literature in a one page executive summary of published findings that highlights differences and similarities to draw conclusions about their research question. Additionally, students learn to create a detailed tweetorial about their research question that is well referenced, engaging, and educational in nature.

In the last semester of this three-part thesis series, students use their research to develop a conference poster presentation that summarizes the current understanding of their research question. This poster includes a literature review to support the relevance of their question, a review of pertinent studies and any conclusions that can be drawn from the previously published literature to change clinical practice or medical education. The students present their findings and conclusions at a mock conference.