Core Medicine Clerkship

Welcome to the Internal Medicine Clerkship! The Internal Medicine Clerkship serves as a focal point of the second-year Foundations in Clinical Care (FCC) educational experience in Vanderbilt's Innovative Medical Curriculum. It is the backbone of medical students' training in medicine and the most intensive in-patient experience offered in the department. During this rotation, students will experience the breadth and diversity of diseases. Students will learn both the science and the art of medicine and how the two complement each other. Students will expand their history and physical diagnosis skills, develop the ability to prioritize patient problems, and generate a prioritized differential diagnosis.  Students will have the opportunity to implement patient management strategies and observe their effects.

Internal Medicine involves problem-solving, finding all the pieces of the puzzle and putting them together in a way that makes a coherent picture. It is also an opportunity to view the patient as a whole, to understand how disease impacts not only on the patient's health but also his or her emotional and social well-being. We value exposing students to these two aspects of medicine - problem-solving and seeing the whole picture. We expect students to work hard, but we expect them to find enjoyment and fulfillment in the immersive learning experience. We commit to doing everything we can to ensure that students experience the best of Internal Medicine.