Interclerkships

Mission Statement

picture: Interclerskhips Many topics essential to medical practice are overlooked by traditional undergraduate medical education. These topics often intersect multiple disciplines, represent significant public health concerns and demand that physicians collaborate with non-medical organizations or with providers from other disciplines. Moreover, these topics emphasize physicians' social responsibilities in addressing concerns that may fall outside the traditional biomedical domain. How should such topics be taught, while ensuring that traditional clinical educational objectives continue to be met?

Facility/location

S1-160 in the Office of Medical Education          Interclerkship Dates Academic Year 09/10

Listing of faculty and staff                                                                

Julie Jonassen, Ph.D.
Madeline Nuñez, Administrative Assistant

Contact us

Madeline NuñezTel.# (508) 856-5038

Project highlights

In 1994, the undergraduate curriculum committees at University of Massachusetts Medical School identified areas of curriculum deficiency and collaborated to develop an innovative format to address these needs. It was a priority to teach this material when it could be immediately reinforced during clerkship training in the third year of medical school. Hence the "Interclerkship" program was launched in 1995. The program has grown over the past 7 years, currently encompassing 10 Interclerkships in AY 2001/2002. The current Interclerkship roster includes 1-day courses on nutrition, domestic violence, pain management, managed care, geriatrics, disabilities, end of life care, cancer genetics, environmental medicine and multiculturalism. The Interclerkships undergo ongoing revision and new courses have been added to respond to changing curricular needs.

The multidisciplinary Interclerkships combine classroom teaching, workshops, panels, films, and interactions with standardized and real patients. Each Interclerkship, organized and taught by up to 40 school and community faculty, embodies educational objectives from basic science, clinical, psychosocial, legal, ethical and societal perspectives. Educational impact is monitored by asking students to complete short written tests addressing course-related knowledge, attitudes and skills, before and after each Interclerkship. Students also provide feedback on course format, content and faculty, which helps us to improve Interclerkships each year. Because these courses are so labor-intensive, we are always looking for faculty who would be interested in developing new interclerkship programs or teaching in our existing courses.