Courses

BU School of Medicine (BUSM) Required Courses and Clerkships

Note: Only students in the MD program can take these courses.

For information on electives for BUSM students, please refer to the BUSM Registrar’s page.

• MED MS 224: Dis.& Therapy 4
  
• MED MS 225: Dis.& Therapy 5
  
• MED MS 226: Dis.& Therapy 6
  
• MED MS 310: Medicine 1 Clerkship (8 weeks)
  The Medicine 1 Clerkship is an 8-week experience that is designed to enhance the student's capacity to function as a caring, increasingly independent but supervised clinician on a multiprofessional team. During the clerkship, students learn clinical medicine while working side by side with residents and faculty in providing care to a cohort of inpatients. A key principle that guides student learning is to provide graduated responsibility with supervision. Medicine 1 introduces the clinical tools and perspectives of the internist that are appropriate regardless of the student's career choice. This learning experience is complemented by a unique enrichment in which students also work closely in small groups with a Clerkship Director and hone essential clinical skills (including intermediate level communications skills, physical diagnosis, and clinical reasoning). The clerkship is divided into two mini blocks of four weeks each, and students learn at two of the following sites: Boston Medical Center, the West Roxbury VA Hospital, MetroWest Medical Cener (Framingham), Jordan Hospital (Plymouth), and Roger Williams Medical Center (Providence, R.I.).
• MED MS 311: Surgery Clerkship (8 weeks)
  During the eight week Surgery Clerkship, students are assigned to a four week rotation in general surgery at one of three sites: BMC, the West Roxbury VAMC, or Cape Cod Hospital. Students also do two rotations (two weeks each) of either vascular surgery, thoracic surgery, anesthesiology, minimally invasive surgery or acute care/trauma surgery. Each of these rotations includes experience in the OR. All rotations except anesthesiology include experience as part of the surgical team caring for patients on the surgical wards, and outpatient care in surgical clinics. Students work directly with faculty in the OR, in clinic, and in regular meetings with their preceptors. All students return to BMC for didactics on Friday, and they participate in educational conferences with the residents and attendings.
• MED MS 312: Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship (6 weeks)
  Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship (6 weeks) offers instruction in the knowledge and skills specific to the reproductive health maintenance and disorders of women. Emphasis is placed on the doctor patient relationship, interviewing skills, appropriate physical exams, and clinical problem solving and patient safety principles in caring for patients. Instruction sites integrate both ambulatory and hospital based experiences including the labor floor and operating room. Student didactics are case based including procedure and skills based simulations.
• MED MS 313: Pediatric Clerkship (6 weeks)
  During the required Pediatric Clerkship, students will experience clinical pediatrics by rotating at one of the clerkship's eight sites. At the clerkship sites, students may rotate on a number of clinical services, including their site's inpatient ward, outpatient clinics, emergency room, newborn nursery, and perhaps a NICU and/or PICU. Students at all clinical sites will participate in the core conference series that is held weekly at Boston Medical Center. During this busy clerkship, we expect students will learn a lot about the care of children and their special needs.
• MED MS 314: MED MS 314: Psychiatry Clerkship (6 weeks)
  During the Psychiatry Clerkship, medical students have the opportunity to see and interview patients who are suffering from many different types of mental health disorders. In a weekly three hour Wednesday afternoon seminar, students are taught about general topics in psychiatry such as personality disorders, schizophrenia, child mental disorders, and substance abuse. Medical students will learn how to diagnose various mental health disorders and will gain a greater understanding of evidence-based treatments for these disorders.
• MED MS 315: Family Medicine Clerkship (6 weeks)
  In the Family Medicine Clerkship, students work in high volume ambulatory care practices of family physicians and residency programs. In the course of the clerkship students learn: to understand and promote a patient centered model of care; to understand Family Medicine approaches to seeing and evaluating patients and families with undifferentiated problems, and the clinical reasoning that guides the definition and diagnosis of such problems; skill in the diagnosis and management of frequently occurring acute and chronic problems; to understand the patient as part of a family and community; to understand and use a comprehensive and continuous approach to care; to understand and use the concepts of Information Mastery, including Patient Oriented Evidence that Matters, the Usefulness Equation, and point of care EBM resources to guide patient care decisions; to understand and use techniques of evidence based preventive medicine and health promotion; to understand population health and health management.
• MED MS 316: Neurology Clerkship (4 weeks)
  Students at Boston University School of Medicine are required to participate in a 4 week Neurology Clerkship in the third year. The goal of the Clerkship is to teach students how a neurologist thinks about disease. The major goal of the clerkship is to gain a solid foundation in the neurological history and examination and the interpretation and significance of neurological examination findings. Much attention is devoted to clinical-anatomical correlation and refining the skills of "lesion localization." Students spend their clinical time in both the in-patient/consultation service and the outpatient clinics. Students are expected to spend most of their time on the adult services, but there is also opportunity to spend time with the Pediatric Neurology group. There are weekly didactic sessions with a senior faculty member that concentrate on clinical problem solving. Clinically relevant reading material and the cases to be discussed in the didactic sessions are provided on the clerkship's BlackBoard site. Students are integrated into the daily resident schedule of special seminars and teaching conferences.
• MED MS 400: Special SUM Reg
  
• MED MS 404: Surgical Subspecialties
  All students must complete the surgery subspecialty requirement in either their third or fourth year. The Surgical Education Office offers a four week rotation consisting of two subspecialty rotations (two weeks each). Students select the subspecialties they wish to do, limited by capacity. Your choices may not be guaranteed. Options include: Anesthesia (BMC or VA), Neurosurgery (BMC), Ophthalmology (BMC or VA),Orthopedics (BMC or VA), Otolaryngology (BMC), Plastic Surgery (BMC), and Urology (BMC or VA).
• MED MS 410: Geriatrics Clerkship (4 weeks)
  This clerkship teaches students basic geriatrics knowledge and skills to recognize and manage common geriatrics issues, such as dementia, delirium, falls, incontinence and pressure ulcers. The students learn the presentation and management of common geriatric syndromes, practice interviewing and examining patient with multiple disabilities and demonstrate the use of common geriatrics screening tools. They participate in a multidisciplinary approach to the care of the frail elderly in the community and in nursing homes, learning about community resources and the role of the various team members. Students work under the direct supervision of geriatric Attending and Nurse practitioners in the clinic, home care and nursing home settings. The students are expected demonstrate independent learning with evidence based paper and on independent home visits.
• MED MS 412: Radiology Clerkship (4 weeks)
  In the Radiology Clerkship there is an overview of diagnostic imaging with emphasis on multiple imaging modalities and the development of a systematic approach to image interpretation. Significant emphasis is also placed on image-guided diagnosis and treatment, the interpretation of radiologic reports, and evidence-based imaging.

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