Over the past year, a compendium of articles has been compiled for clerkship students at American University of Integrative sciences, School of Medicine. These high yield topics address the major subject areas in the core clerkship rotations. “Since taking on the role of Dean of Clinical Affairs, interviews with our senior students identified a lack of resources to study,” said Dr. Don Penney, clinical dean.
This study material is important to students in preparation for the shelf exam to be taken on completion of the clerkship. As a result of significant variability in rotations, it was felt that having a collection of relevant review articles was essential in standardizing subject matter in the individual rotations, said Dr. Penney. Core clerkship rotations at AUIS are offered throughout the United States and Canada. “The experience of students in their rotations is often dependent on the rotation, the hospital and the practice of the preceptor,” said Penney. “Some of our clinical faculty specialize in different areas depending on their expertise, and as a result students may experience some variation in their exposure to certain medical conditions.”
As an example, Penney said, if the surgery core rotations is completed with a vascular surgeon, the student’s may see an abundance of vascular cases and perhaps may not have as broad an exposure in other surgical conditions. Other news from the Clinical Affairs Department is the development of an elective handbook. “Students at AUIS complete their elective rotations after completing their core rotations,” he said. “Many students seek out their own elective rotations; their choices in electives are dependent on their interests and possibly a potential future residency choice.”
Again, the elective experience can vary, and students are encouraged to complete an evaluation of their elective experience, Penney said. Often, students who have discovered an enriched educational experience can report it in their evaluation. This allows future students to seek out that preceptor for a similar elective. It should be noted that the aforementioned review articles can be obtained from Mr. Torri Perry of AUIS’s clinical department. These articles will be reviewed on an ongoing basis in order to stay current. Students are encouraged to submit any review articles they have. These articles will be considered for addition into the compendium.
These articles can be submitted to Dr. Penney directly at dpenney@auis.edu.
