Inpatient/Outpatient US Clinical Experience in Internal Medicine in Houston

Information about this clinical experience:

This rotation split between the inpatient and outpatient settings will be under the supervision of a board-certified internal medicine physician with years of experience educating U.S. medical students as well as international medical students and graduates. The physician holds hospital appointments at several institutions, including the HCA Houston Healthcare System, and has served as a clinical preceptor for first-year medical students from the Baylor College of Medicine.

In the clinic, you will see patients with both acute complaints and chronic disease. You will learn how to evaluate these patients through focused history-taking and examination and synthesize the data to form an assessment and plan. During discussions with the attending, important teaching points related to these cases will be shared with you. Of note, the patient population that the preceptor cares for includes many patients with multiple comorbidities. Therefore, this experience will be an excellent opportunity for you to learn how to manage patients with complex medical and social conditions. This physician is well-regarded for providing patients with personalized care and believes in taking the time necessary to listen to patients and make them feel heard.

Hospital rounds may take place at one or two institutions. Time spent in the hospital will make you more aware of how internal medicine physicians can remain involved in the care of their patients when they require a higher level of care. With more and more primary care physicians giving up their inpatient practice to hospitalists, care can become fragmented. In addition, some patients may be dissatisfied when their personal physicians are not involved during their hospitalization. In this rotation, because the preceptor will see patients in both the hospital and clinic, you will have the opportunity to observe how hospitalized patients respond when seen by their own personal physician in the hospital.

Through this experience, you will be exposed to several different EMRs, including NextGen EMR in the office and Meditech and Athena EMR in the hospital.

During your experience, you will learn the following U.S. medical practices under the preceptor’s supervision:

• Taking patient histories under supervision.

• Performing exams under the physician's supervision.

• Presenting patients.

• Writing or entering notes in the EMR (NextGen EMR)

• Researching the literature to answer clinical questions at the point of care.

• Educating patients under supervision.

• Spending time with other healthcare professionals to understand their roles and responsibilities.