Third Year Clerkship

Clerkship Overview

The Family Medicine Clerkship is a six-week core rotation for Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine third year students. Central objectives of the clerkship are to teach:

1. The Family Medicine approach to the diagnosis and management of undifferentiated patient problems
2. Core clinical skills required to assess and manage common acute and chronic problems
3. Principles of comprehensive, contextual, and continuous care for patients and their families 
4. Patient-centered communication techniques to provide education and counseling and assist patients in health promotion 
5. Evidence-based preventative care

While Family Medicine delivers care to patients in the clinic, home and hospital, the clerkship is focused on ambulatory care. Students spend their time learning in either community health centers, or private group or solo practices based on student preference. Experience at the clinical sites will be complemented by the core curriculum at BUCASM facilitated by department faculty. Clinical performance will be evaluated by the student’s preceptors as well as OSCE and written examinations at the conclusion of the clerkship.

Clerkship Sites

Family Medicine Clerkship sites include a number of community health center and underserved sites, such as Melnea Cass Family Medicine, Codman Square Community Health Center, South Boston Community Health Center, Neighborhealth (formerly East Boston Neighborhood Health Center), Manet Community Health Center, Mattapan Community Health Center, Geiger Gibson Community Health Center, Greater Roslindale Medical and Dental Center, DotHouse Health; private practices in the greater Boston area, as well as Berkshire Medical Center. Several of these sites are part of the BUMC Family Medicine Residency (NeighborHealth East Boston, South Boston, Codman Square and Roslindale Health Centers). Housing is provided at all away sites.

All of our sites provide excellent learning experiences for students. We work actively with each site and preceptor to make sure that our students are engaged, seeing an appropriate volume and variety of patients, actively developing assessments and plans on their own, being observed, and receiving valuable feedback.

Our sites are divided into the categories listed below. You will enter your site category preferences during the lottery. View the links below to learn more about each site. 

1. Community Health Centers/Undeserved
2. Greater Boston Private/Group Practice
3. FM Clerkship Away Sites

Once you have read the descriptions of the sites, complete the Family Medicine Site Preference Form.

Community Health Center/Underserved

Greater Boston Private/Group Practice

Away Sites

Once students receive their schedule they will also receive an email with the link to the Family Medicine Site Preference Form. This online form allows students placed at Community Health Center/Underserved and Greater Boston Private/Group Practice to give us more detailed information about their interests and preferences so we can match you with a specific site in this category. Please fill it out after you have received your Third Year schedule.

We do our best to accommodate all requests, but given the number of spots needed, we are not able to guarantee that all requests will be met.

***Please note that occasionally staffing or other circumstances at a site may change necessitating that a student be switched to a different site, potentially in a very different location than the original placement. This can occur up to the first day of clerkship. We try if at all possible to avoid this, but sometimes circumstances are unavoidable.***

Clerkship Forms & Resources

• Guidelines and other resources
• Clinical Evaluation Form
• Family Medicine Field Specific Advisor
• Family Medicine Site Preference Form
• Preceptor Block Preference Form

Military Rotation Information

A student in the military and in good standing at BUSM may request to do the Family Medicine Clerkship at a military site. The student must take the following steps in order to submit the request. All requests will be reviewed by the Family Medicine Clerkship Director for a decision and final approval.

It is the student’s responsibility to:

1. Check that the military program will accommodate BUSM’s 6-week block date that has been assigned. Check that the site will agree to meet the Department of Family Medicine’s clerkship requirements. View the requirement form (PDF).
2. Have the principal preceptor at the military site sign the requirement form agreeing to #1 and #2.
3. Provide information to the Family Medicine clerkship coordinator, Madison Boschulte, that explains the military’s clerkship program. You may choose to submit the military’s handbook or provide a link to a website which describes the military’s clerkship program. Note: We strongly recommend clerkships within military Family Medicine Residency sites rather than non-residency based clerkships.
4. Turn in the signed requirement form.
5. Requests will be reviewed, once all the above information has been received and verified, and the student will be notified via email by the FM Clerkship Director with the final decision.
6. If the FM Clerkship Director approves of the rotation, the student may then petition the Third and Fourth Year Promotions Committee for their approval.
7. Once approval by the Promotions Committee is secured, the student may contact the FM clerkship coordinator with the military site contact information so that the coordinator may mail the “preceptor handbook” to the site and confirm dates of attendance.

The student will be required to participate in and complete clerkship orientation, didactic sessions I and II, the online component, patient log, case study, and will return for the final examination day on the last day of the block. The student may be excused from didactic sessions III and IV and the practice interviews if long distance travel is a factor. Release from these didactic sessions is at the discretion of the FM Clerkship Director, and the student should discuss these details with the clerkship director on the first day of the clerkship.

Contact Information

Lidya Wlasiuk, MD, MPH
Clerkship Director
(617) 414-6243
Lidya.Wlasiuk@bmc.org

Julie Bartolomeo, MD
Associate Clerkship Director
(617) 414-6243
Julia.Bartolomeo@bmc.org

Madison Boschulte
Clerkship Coordinator
mboschul@bu.edu