Goals & Objectives

Overview

The goals and objectives of the two-month clerkship and the way we help you achieve them are outlined below.

Requirements

Open only to Stanford MD students.

Grading and Assessment

This is a PASS/FAIL course. The student is required to complete both the Standardized Patient and NBME Shelf Exams, achieving a scaled score of 68.

Clerkship event audience photo, back of heads

Knowledge

Objective

Broad range of fundamental knowledge covering the field of medicine.

Means

Clerkship students will achieve this objective through extensive reading about patients under care and broad reading of basic course book, as well as active participation in all rounds and student lectures.

Doctor patient clinical setting interaction

Skills

Objective

Competence in care of medicine inpatients.

Means

Participants will be assigned to patients on call days and will work under the close supervision of house staff as they complete history and physical exams upon admission, write admission notes/orders, and directly manage patients with daily progress notes/orders. Students will be expected to practice and demonstrate proficiency in oral presentation for rounds in various lengths, and participate in Standardized Patients exercise.

Five residents smiling in white coats photo

Attitude

Objective

Professionalism and humanism

Means

A deficiency in the area of professionalism is taken as seriously as a deficiency in cognitive knowledge. Professional includes a compassion for patients and their families, being available for clinical management of patients, participation and punctuality in rounds and lectures, as well as having clinical and educational responsibility towards your team.

Residents in audience thinking and looking in one direction, toward front corner of room

Evaluation

Objective

Provide opportunity for continual improvement, and for Stanford clerkship grading.

Means

Evaluation will be based on feedback by attendings, chief residents, and house staff and by clerkship director and you must achieve a satisfactory evaluation for both community and university site in all aspects of your experience. Clerkship students must also secure a subject exam score of 68 (roughly the 20th percentile) on the Medicine National Boards Shelf Exam, which is administered on the last Friday of the eight-week rotation.