Family & Community Medicine Clerkship

Details about the Family  & Community Medicine Clerkship can be found in the Family & Community Medicine Clerkship Survival Guide.

Community Based Activities:

Students go out into the community two or three days per week to participate in the following activities:

  • Local Nursing Home : Students learn about geriatric assessment and perform an assessment on an assigned patient at the nursing home.
  • Iowa Department of Public Health : Students interact with various departments and learn more about the Department's disease prevention and disease tracking and outbreak investigation services. 
  • Taylor House Hospice: Students attend a multidisciplinary patient care conference and round with a Dr. Rebecca Lachenmaier in the morning at Taylor House. Students will then travel with a hospice nurse in the afternoon on home visits.
  • Sports Medicine : Students spend one afternoon with a physical therapist/certified athletic therapist. They will learn physical therapy measures, usage, and management for a wide variety of orthopedic conditions.
  • Donor Awareness : Students will meet for two hours with a representative about "end of life" organ donation decisions for patients and families, legislative initiatives, and time constraints regarding organ donation.
  • Social Services: Students spend one hour meeting with a hospital social worker to learn how patients qualify for and access various social support medical services.
  • Iowa State Medical Examiner Students spend one day working with physicians and other staff in the State Medical Examiner's Office to learn about crime scene investigations and forensic pathology.
  • Speech Therapy: Students spend one-half day working with a hospital-based speech therapist evaluating new patients and coordinating care of established patients with a variety of speech and swallowing disorders.
  • Palliative Care: Students spend one day working with the Palliative Care Consult Service staff at IMMC. 
  • Diabetes Education: Students will spend one half-day working with diabetes nurse and dietician educators at a certified Diabetes Education Center on the IMMC campus.

Resources:

  • A detailed notebook for rotation will be provided on the first day of the clerkship.
  • Health Sciences Library: Students have 24-hour access 7 days per week to the IMMC Health Sciences library. A UnityPoint - Des Moines picture ID badge will be needed for after-hours entry. Internet and photocopying are available. Students may call the Health Sciences librarians for assistance at 515-241-6490.
  • See Clerkship ICON website for additional electronic resources.

Conferences:

  • CBL Sessions: See schedule provided for times, locations, and topics.
  • Geriatric Assessment, and Learning Issue presentations with Dr. Craig.
  • Students will present the results of their Community Health Project in the last week of clerkship at Broadlawns Medical Center.

Evaluations:

  • Mid-Clerkship Feedback (upload form into CLERX)
  • Preceptor observed history-taking (upload form into CLERX)
  • Preceptor observed physical exam (upload form into CLERX)
  • Clerkship Evaluation
  • Preceptor Evaluations
  • Request Preceptor Evaluations from your 4-week preceptor and at least one preceptor you worked with at the RMEC site

Maps

Office of Student Affairs and Curriculum (OSAC)