For a printable copy of this letter, click here. (PDF format)

June 2002

Dear P&S Student,

Welcome to the third year of medical school — your major clinical year of training. Your goal is simple; it is to develop effective approaches to the basic clinical skills. Every experience and clerkship will have this as its primary aim. To this end, we are enclosing a description of these objectives — that you should use a checklist to follow your own progress. This descriptive list was put together by the consensus of a working group representing clerkship directors in all disciplines. We mean to reinforce that every clerkship will emphasize these core skills and that the differences between clerkships should only highlight the underlying similarities of purpose.

We wish you luck on your journey. Use this map well - and remember — that like any map — it will carry you through stages of disorientation, struggle, discovery and ultimate achievement. None of these stages can be avoided — but the map will get you to the end faster.

Steve Miller, MD, (Convener) Pediatrics
Rebecca Kurth, MD, Primary Care
Mark Hardy, MD, Surgery
Glenda Garvey, MD, Medicine
Blair Ford, MD, Neurology
Janis Cutler, MD, Psychiatry
Eileen DeMarco, MD, OB/GYN
Peter Puchner, MD, Urology
Linda Lewis, MD, Advisor
Eric Marcus, MD, Advisor