Length of Clerkship: 4 weeks
Call: Generally no overnight call; however a couple of sites do require a night or two of call during the course of the four weeks.
Lectures: Wednesdays at Rush. These usually start at 8:00 or 9:00 a.m. and end by 4:00 p.m. Topics vary depending on time of year but include: asthma, adolescent medicine, reproductive medicine, geriatrics, otitis media, etc. There also have been suture workshop, a casting workshop, and a procedure and EKG workshop.
Depending on your chosen site, you may have additional lectures from residents and attending, or maybe required to attend community or outreach clinics or nursing homes once or twice.
Presentations: One group presentation is required for the clerkship (by you and a partner that you pick). You will be presenting a patient with a clinical dilemma/controversy and will describe how you would use medical literature and shared medical decision making to explore patients’ options and preferences. You may also be asked to do a brief presentation by your specific site.
Miniboard: There is no miniboard exam, rather an “in house” exam created by Dr. Waickus. As with family medicine, this exam encompasses topics from internal medicine, peds, and ob/gyn. Your outpatient experiences will help prepare you for the test, but pick a good book and know it! The exam is based on the Sloane Textbook, thus, most people read the Sloane book (see Recommended Text). There is a new edition out, and it is unclear right now how the exam will change for the new book, however all the questions on the exam as it is now, come from the 4th edition of the book. NOTE: The exam has been known to be very detailed, so don’t slack on the study; especially if you have family as one of your first rotations.
Pocket Contents: A pharmacoepia, Tarascon or epocrates are very helpful on service. Also a good idea to have a Sanford guide. Other necessities are your reflex hammer and a pregnancy wheel.
Family Medicine Suggested Reading:
Textbooks:
Essentials of Family Medicine (AKA “The Sloane Book”) 5e: ISBN: 978-0-7817-8188-6, 4e: ISBN 0-78173391-X This is the recommended text is by Sloane. Since it has about 800 pages, many people focused on the “Preventitive” and “Common Problems” sections, but many managed to finish the entire book. This book is fairly well written and organized in a logical fashion. Included is a CDrom (4e) or Online Code (5e) with links to questions - which are great for studying for the exam.
Swanson’s Family Practice Review, ISBN 0-323-00914-X. This book is a popular choice. This format is questions and extensive answers. The format does not mimic the miniboard in that the clinical vignette is followed by 10-15 short questions. However, the explanations are extensive and the book has 1200+ questions so it may require a time commitment.
Of course, there are many other books out there, though most people feel that books such as Blueprints and the like are not adequate for the miniboard. If you are taking Family before Peds, OB, or Medicine, it is not a bad idea to quickly review the pertinent sections in a book such as Boards and Wards (ISBN: 1-4051-0341-8) or something like that. However, Swanson’s does cover those sections.