Third-Year Clerkships - Internal Medicine
Knoxville:
 Clerkship Director: Janet L. Purkey, MD jpurkey@mc.utmck.edu
Student Affairs: Missy Maples (865) 305-9618, Email: mmaples@mc.utmck.edu
Department of Medicine contact: Susan Hill (865) 305-9340 or shill@mc.utmck.edu
Website: http://gsm.utmck.edu/internalmed/main.htm
The Department of Medicine sponsors up to six (6) third year medical students for their mandatory 8 week block Internal Medicine Core Clerkship. The students work closely on a team with two interns, one upper level medicine resident and one medicine attending. The students see new patients in the ED and provide care during the hospital stay. They also see patients who are transferred to the hospital floor team from the intensive care units. The students are expected to see their assigned patients on a daily basis. They assess patients and develop a differential diagnosis with an evaluation and therapeutic plan as part of the team. Close supervision is provided and yet adequate autonomy is provided to allow physician skills to develop that can only be learned via independent study/experience. Students are encouraged to perfect their basic skills of phlebotomy, BP checks arterial punctures to obtain blood gases and IV placement during this time. Students are afforded opportunities to observe and perform diagnostic procedures such as thoracentesis, paracentesis, and joint aspiration. The call schedule for the team is every third day with the student picking up admissions during the day hours. Students are encouraged to spend several nights "on call" with the assigned intern but are not required to maintain a 24-hour presence while on call.
The outpatient experience is limited but available for students who desire to see patients in the ambulatory setting—the student usually sees patients with the assigned team intern but allowed to see outpatients with the assigned resident or attending.
One well-crafted history and physical is to be turned in to the attending each week. Emphasis is placed on the history, physical and assessment with a detailed differential diagnosis. This is to be reviewed with the attending before the next call day.
Two study books are available for checkout from the Department of Medicine. We recommend the Lange Series for Medicine for the first 2-4 weeks followed by the MKSAP for Students 3 for the remainder study period. Harrison's remains the textbook of choice for detailed reference as well as online availability of MD Consult.
For more information about the clerkship, you may contact the Knoxville Student Affairs Office. To inquire about our residency program, please visit our website, http://gsm.utmck.edu/internalmed/main.htm.
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