Geisinger Medical Center is a unique academic medical center, as we are both a local community hospital as well as a tertiary/quaternary care medical facility, serving a large geographic region. As such, we are able to offer clinical exposure to a diverse array of pathophysiologic conditions. On the inpatient units, you will be challenged daily with patients in our step-down intensive care units, telemetry and general medical floors.

Our hospitalist services admit patients for all the subspecialties of medicine, offering learners a robust clinical experience. Balancing your busy clinical schedule, is a comprehensive didactic lecture series covering core curricular topics, as outlined by the clerkship directors of internal medicine (CDIM) Curriculum Guide. Lectures are supplemented by hands-on, interactive experiences, such as physical diagnosis rounds, preceptor rounds and clinical skills labs; including ECG interpretation, CXR interpretation and EBM fundamentals.

Ambulatory internal medicine
The ambulatory component of the internal medicine clerkship offers an introduction to office-based and subspecialty medicine. This four-week clinical rotation is divided evenly between the general internal medicine clinic and a subspecialty selective of your choice. While in the outpatient medicine clinic, students are given the opportunity to evaluate patients in a variety of situations, such as acute complaints, chronic disease management and health maintenance/disease prevention visits.

The subspecialty selective may occur purely in the ambulatory setting or as a combination of ambulatory and inpatient consults. Students may choose from any of the available subspecialties for this experience. Exposure to subspecialty medicine vastly increases the amount and depth of knowledge for specific disease processes. As such, students have used this opportunity to explore possible fields of interest, or to supplement their knowledge base. 

Goals & objectives

As a student, your primary job is to learn. This is accomplished through didactic sessions, case based presentations and clinical exposure. Major goals for our third year students are to hone history and physical examination skills, refine oral and written presentations, learn the basic approach to patient care. Specific competency-based objectives are listed below.

• Medical knowledge: Acquire core knowledge of Internal Medicine and integrate basic pathophysiology with clinical patient management.
• Patient care: The ability to obtain a medical history and perform a physical examination is fundamental to the role of a physician in providing comprehensive care to patients.
• Topics: Many of the core topics will be covered during the medical student lecture series.
• Communication and interpersonal skills: Students must effectively exchange information between patients, their families and professional associates.
• Practice-based learning and improvement: Students must investigate and evaluate their patient care practices and appraise and assimilate scientific evidence to improve patient care practices.
• Systems-based practice: Students should learn to efficiently and effectively function in the clinical setting by working with other health professionals as a team and developing the skills to perform and interpret clinical procedures. Students should demonstrate commitment in being an active participant in all clinical activities.
• Professionalism: Students are expected to behave in a professional manner with patients and colleagues at all times. Professionalism requires a commitment to the highest standards of excellence in the practice of medicine and serving the interests and welfare of the patient. Professional behavior includes honesty, a commitment to life-long learning and service, respect and compassion for patients and colleagues, maintenance of personal appearance, respectful language and behavior, responsibility for actions and recognition of limitations.