Hospital Guidelines
The student is most often assigned to a family practitioner, general internist or pediatrician. This preceptor will be responsible for helping the student arrange his or her activities for the entire summer. In addition, there may be an administrator, administrative assistant or secretary who helps to arrange the schedule by contacting the various specialty preceptors and hospital departments which participate at each site. NOTE: Students should be advised that the requirements for employment differ from hospital to hospital (i.e. proof of immunizations, satisfactory completion of hospital orientation, drug-screening, etc).
In order to attain the goals of the program, the student's time ought to be divided among three general areas: community, office and hospital. A successful program will be one which achieves a balance among these three. Listed below are suggested activities to be included in each of these categories.
Community Activities
- Visit and observe primary medical care services outside the context of private medical practice; e.g. Visiting Nurse Association, Mental Health Clinic, Well Baby Clinic
- Visit and observe health related institutions within the community; e.g. nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, mental hospitals
- Observe special community approaches to the problems of drug and alcohol abuse, sexually transmitted disease and population control
- Observe Emergency Medical Service delivery
- Visit and observe social service agencies and programs in the community; e.g. Department of Public Assistance, Social Security, Bureau of Vocational Rehabilitation
- Understand community handling of public health problems; e.g. sewage disposal and treatment, solid waste disposal, smoke control, food processing and group inoculations
- Observe industrial medical and safety programs within the community; e.g. in a coal mining region - mine safety, dust control, the role of the occupational physician, and government and United Mine Workers programs for those with pneumoconiosis
- Understand, and possibly observe, practices of alternative health care delivery, including, but not limited to chiropractic, herbal and faith healers
Office Activities
- Observe and participate in physician-patient interactions
- Observe routine office procedures; e.g. blood pressure, urinalyses, hematocrit, initial interviews on some patients, selected portions of the physical examination
- Understand referrals to specialists and follow-up some patients at offices of specialists to whom the preceptor refers
- Observe duties of office and paramedical personnel
- Understand legal and ethical problems of medical practice
- Understand record keeping system of the physician
- Accompany the physician on house calls
- Observe the community activities in which the physician engages
Hospital Activities
- Exposure to each of the major fields of medicine; e.g. Surgery, Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Obstetrics/Gynecology and Pediatrics
- Exposure to the various specialties and subspecialties; e.g. radiology, pathology, urology, orthopedics, psychiatry, ophthalmology, etc.
- Exposure to all hospital departments, both medical and non-medical; e.g. administration, medical records, nursing, emergency room, intensive care unit, dietary, physical therapy, social services, etc.
- Following various patients through the stages of hospitalization; e.g. admission, history and physical, x-rays, lab tests, surgery, etc.
- Rounds with the assigned preceptor and attendance at scheduled hospital seminars, medical staff meetings and conferences
- Observe routine procedures; e.g. blood pressure, venipunctures, scrub techniques
- Take call for observations of interesting patient findings and procedures in the emergency room, operating room, etc.; observe post-mortem examinations and unusual laboratory procedures
- Understand cost and quality control mechanisms in the hospital; e.g. utilization committee, medical auditing, and tissue committee
