Internal medicine is a broad discipline - that's why we've designed a clerkship that will help you refine your skills and focus your interests.

Medical Student Rotations

The Department of Internal Medicine at the Valleywise Health Medical Center has a rotation duration of 4 weeks per rotation and a maximum of four rotations per academic year.

The major strengths of the internal medicine rotations at Valleywise Health include the tremendous range of pathology, the strong didactic program and the active, accessible teaching staff.

Additionally, students have a unique opportunity to participate in hands-on patient care. Specifically, students function as an integral member of the health care team, assuming responsibilities commensurate with their level of training and under the direct supervision of full-time faculty.

The working environment is informal and concentrates on practical aspects of patient management with strong emphasis on solving problems by proper interpretation of clinical data and the sound application of general medical principles.

All applications for internal medicine student rotations must be submitted to the internal medicine department for approval 75 days prior to the clerkship.

Internal Medicine does not offer observerships

 

Primary Patient Care Electives

Clinical rotations involve primary responsibility for direct patient care and are an excellent preparation for the internship year. In this elective, you will function as a “sub-intern,” becoming an integral and active member of a ward team under direct faculty supervision. You will work-up and follow patients, participate in daily attending rounds, perform procedures and learn the basic mechanics of managing a hospital service.

Junior Electives

As a 3rd year medical student, General Medicine Wards is available to you.

Senior Electives

Senior electives are divided into those involving primary patient care:

  • General Medicine Wards
  • Critical Care Medicine

and those involving consultative services:

  • Cardiology
  • Endocrinology
  • Gastroenterology
  • Hematology/Oncology
  • Nephrology
  • Neurology
  • Pulmonary

Call Schedule

  • Inpatient ward service call is every fifth day/night
  • Medical students are not required to stay overnight for call
  • Critical care medicine works in shifts, including night shifts
  • There is no call for the sub-specialty rotations
  • There may be instances in which Gastroenterology, nephrology, and cardiology may be used to satisfy a requirement of a sub-internship.  Those students wishing to do this as a sub-internship will be required to take call and will have increased responsibilities commensurate with a sub-internship.

Consultative Service Electives

You will be a member of a subspecialty consultation team under the direct supervision of a staff member. The experience is clinically-oriented and, although primarily inpatient, all rotations have one or more outpatient clinics per week. A core curriculum of lectures is given by the attending.

Primary care responsibilities, call and weekend coverage are not part of this experience.

Additional Information

  • All of our rotations begin on any Monday and end on Friday – they are 4-week rotation blocks.
  • Free parking.
  • Educational materials provided.
  • Students are required to attend noontime medical resident conferences.

 

Comments From Students

  • “I felt that the rotation was excellent. I was able to participate in the care of many patients. The patients that I followed were quite interesting and challenging. Additionally, the team always made sure that I would see an interesting case.” MS-4
  • “I really enjoyed my time at MMC. Excellent working conditions with supportive and knowledgeable interns, residents and attendings; relaxed atmosphere and great learning environment.” MS-4
  • “Great learning experience; good balance of educational experiences and work load. My team was very helpful, especially with procedures and helping me on my admissions while still allowing independence.” MS-4
  • “Excellent teaching from both attendings and residents. Excellent mix of cases in seeing both common and not-so-common types of problems. I felt as if I was part of the team and given a satisfactory level of responsibility.” MS-4
  • “I had a wonderful rotation. The attendings and residents/interns went out of their way to make sure that I had a good education. Everyone on the team was knowledgeable and loved to teach.”
  • “I had an excellent month rotating in the general medicine wards here at Valleywise Health. This is an excellent teaching institution with a very good faculty-to-student ratio, one that permits more personal mentoring. I was very impressed with the camaraderie between the residents, faculty and ancillary staff. The morning report sessions, Chief Resident Conferences, noon conferences and student lectures definitely expanded my knowledge base. The Chief Resident Conference quiz each week was extremely helpful, as it was an opportunity to reinforce my knowledge and learn new facts. It also provided the motivation to read and understand the various topics that were presented.”

Faculty: Drs. Mehrdad Saririan, Raina Roy,  Azar Mehdizadeh, and Beeletsega Yeneneh

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 2

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To provide a broad overview of contemporary issues in the management of patients presenting with a wide variety of problems involving the cardiovascular system.

Format: You will become an active and participating member of the Cardiology consult service and outpatient clinic team. Routine activities include ECG interpretation, cardiology rounds, new patient work-ups, interpretation of hemodynamic and angiographic data, journal club and educational conferences. Emphasis is placed on the basic approach to patient evaluation, problem-solving and decision-making for a patient with cardiac problem.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluation by the attending at the end of the rotation.

Faculty: Drs. Marc Merroto and Jacek Sobczak

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 2

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To strengthen the student’s skills in evaluating patients with neurologic and neurovascular disorders.

Format: The student is an active member of the consultative team under the direct supervision of subspecialist staff. Activities include consultative services as well as outpatient clinic experience. No call or weekend coverage.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluations by the attending at the conclusion of rotation.

Faculty: Drs. Norlalak Jiramethee, Katherine Gross, Syed Zaidi, and Andres Borja-Alvarez

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 2

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To provide the student with hands-on practical experience in the intensive care unit. The emphasis will be on learning an organized diagnostic and therapeutic approach to the critically ill patient with multiple organ system disease.

Format: You will have the opportunity to be an active and integral part of the ICU team, participating in direct patient care, daily attending rounds and a core curriculum of lectures in critical care medicine. By the end of the rotation, you will begin to construct a solid foundation in ventilator management, invasive hemodynamic monitoring and procedural skills, which will be invaluable for those planning a future in virtually any aspect of clinical practice. In addition to the “high-tech” methods employed in a contemporary intensive care unit, however, strong emphasis remains on a compassionate approach to the patient, the importance of the physical exam, clinical problem solving and the learning of sound general medical principles.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and a written evaluation by the attending at the conclusion of the student’s rotation.

Faculty: Dr. Marina Rudin

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 1

Patient Care Elective: Yes

Goals: To strengthen student skills in the care and evaluation of patients with endocrine and metabolic diseases, including evaluation, differential diagnosis and the appropriate use of diagnostic testing in both the acute and outpatient setting. Includes experience in thyroid, reproductive endocrinology, bone disease, and diabetes.

Format: You will be an active member of the consultative team under the direct supervision of sub-specialist staff. Activities include consultative services as well as outpatient clinic experience. No call or weekend coverage.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluations by the attending at the conclusion of rotation.

Faculty: Drs. Keng-Yu Chuang, Abdul Nadir, and Indu Srinivsan

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 1

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To provide the student with a broad exposure to gastrointestinal and hepatic disorders in both the acute and outpatient setting.

Format: You will be an active member of the consultative team under the direct supervision of sub-specialist staff. Activities include consultative service as well as outpatient clinic experience. No call or weekend coverage.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluations by the attending at the conclusion of rotation.

Faculty: Drs. Waqas Arslan and Surabhi Amar

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 1

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To strengthen students’ skills in the management of patients with malignant disease and in the clinical evaluation of hematologic disorders.

Format: You will be an active member of the consultative team under the direct supervision of sub-specialist staff. Activities include consultative service as well as outpatient clinic experience. No call or weekend coverage.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluations by the attending at the conclusion of rotation.

Faculty: Drs. Shannon Skinner, Tina Younger, David Wisinger and Faculty

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 10

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: Development of clinical skills via supervised, advanced experience in examination and care of hospitalized patients. Improvement in problem identification and problem-solving ability.

Format: This clerkship offers a sub-internship experience in general internal medicine. You will become a member of the attending-resident-intern team with direct patient care responsibility. This is an excellent rotation that provides a tremendous amount of clinical experience and is invaluable in preparing for the internship year.

Evaluation Methods: Subjective by instructors.

Faculty: Dr. Maher Mousa, Arizona Kidney Dialysis (AKDHC)

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 1

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To provide the student with a broad exposure to patients with acute and chronic renal diseases, acid base and electrolyte disorders.

Format: You will be an active member of the consultative team under the direct supervision of sub-specialist staff. Activities include consultative service as well as outpatient clinic experience. No call or weekend coverage.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluations by the attending at the conclusion of rotation.

Faculty: Drs. Syed Zaidi, Katherine Gross, Andres Borja-Alvarez, and Norlalak Jiramethee

Length of Time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 1

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To strengthen the student’s skills in the care of patients with a wide variety of pulmonary diseases including evaluation, differential diagnosis and the appropriate use of diagnostic testing in both the acute and outpatient setting.

Format: You will be an active member of the consultative team under the direct supervision of sub-specialist staff. Activities include consultative service as well as outpatient clinic experience. No call or weekend coverage.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluations by the attending at the conclusion of rotation.

Faculty: Dr. Sheetal Chhaya

Length of time: 4 weeks maximum

Offered: Year-round

Maximum enrollment: 1

Patient care elective: Yes

Goals: To teach the students how to diagnose and treat rheumatic diseases by exposing the students to the diversity of rheumatologic diseases including inflammatory autoimmune diseases (RA, SLE, scleroderma, myositis, vasculitis), degenerative conditions (OA, osteonecrosis), crystal disease/arthritis (gout, hyperuricemia, pseudogout, calcium pyrophosphate), soft tissue rheumatism, seronegative, spondyloarthropathies, (AS Reiters, psoriatic arthritis), metabolic bone disease (osteoporosis, osteomalacia, Paget’s).

Format: You will gain outpatient and inpatient experience in diagnosing and treating rheumatic diseases. Please note:

  • Outpatient clinics are held 3-4 times a week
  • Pediatric Rheumatology Clinic is held once a month
  • Inpatient consults average 12-14 patients per month

You will evaluate patients and present to attending staff. A core curriculum lecture series of 8 topics (e.g. RA, Serology, SLE, X-ray interpretation, OA) is also an integral part of the rotation.

Evaluation Methods: Ongoing feedback and written evaluation at the completion of the rotation.