FAMILY MEDICINE AND AMBULATORY CARE CLERKSHIP (MDC 7124)
Clerkship Syllabus- AY 2025-2026
Duration: 6 weeks
Clerkship web page: See rotation Canvas page
Clerkship Description:
Welcome to the Family Medicine and Ambulatory Care Clerkship! This 6-week clerkship, sponsored jointly by the Department of Community Health and Family
Medicine and the Department of Medicine, emphasizes core principles shared across primary care specialties. By addressing these foundational themes in an interdisciplinary model, we aim to provide a comprehensive and well-rounded learning experience. This approach also highlights the unique perspectives and practices of each discipline, allowing students to appreciate the distinctive styles, emphases, and approaches each specialty offers. Throughout this clerkship, students will develop skills in diagnosing and managing common acute
and chronic conditions in a primary care setting. Educational sessions will focus on clinical presentations frequently encountered in primary care, delivered through case-based discussions each Friday and small-group discussions during the week. Additionally, students will participate in a series of Friday workshops covering other essential topics relevant to primary care practice.
Learning Objectives:
By the end of the 6-week Family Medicine and Ambulatory Care Clerkship, students will be able to do the following:
- Gather relevant information and develop a basic differential diagnosis for common
presentations. - Propose initial evaluation and management plans.
- Manage follow-up visits for chronic diseases using evidence-based guidelines.
- Conduct wellness visits using evidence-based guidelines.
- Apply patient-centered approaches, fostering shared decision-making and safe, highvalue
care. - Understand the principles of primary care and the critical role of family physicians.
- Demonstrate professionalism in all interactions
Learning Activities
1. Clinic Assignments
FMACC is divided into two three-week blocks. During your time at each of these blocks, you will work with multiple attending physicians and care for patients of varying ages, demographics, and backgrounds.
2. Core Topic
Educational Sessions and Workshops Faculty will present a series of core clinical topics that are frequently encountered in primary care. Slides and additional readings, podcasts, and/or videos for specific topics will be available on Canvas. Some educational sessions will be held in the Health Science Center in Gainesville; please refer to the online educational session schedule for topics, locations, and room numbers. Students are responsible for thoroughly reviewing all materials to prepare for examinations.
Attendance at all Friday Core Topic and Workshop sessions is mandatory unless officially excused. Students must scan in via QR Code with New-Innovations for attendance to be
recorded. Unexcused absences will result in a 1% grade reduction. Scanning in for classmates, leaving a session early without permission, or signing in and then departing before the session begins are all considered unprofessional behaviors and are taken seriously by the Academic Status Committee.
Note: Students must be professional and attentive during Zoom educational sessions. Students are expected to have cameras on and be in a non-distracting setting. Students are not allowed to drive during Zoom sessions.
3. Small Group Peer Teaching
Students will be assigned to small groups of 5-6, each led by an assigned faculty member. These small groups will meet during lunch 2-3 times over the 6-week clerkship. Each student will be responsible for delivering a 15-minute presentation to their small group on a clinical topic selected from a pre-set list. Faculty leaders will evaluate each presentation using the grading rubric provided on Canvas and included in the appendix at the end of this document. An unexcused absence from this session will result in a grade reduction of 1%.
4. SMART Goals/Reflection Exercise
At the start of the clerkship, students will set a personal SMART goal that aligns with the clerkship’s learning objectives and outline strategies to achieve this goal during their rotation. At the end of the clerkship, students will reflect on their progress, assessing whether they met their goals, identifying factors that facilitated or impeded their success, and considering ways to refine these goals for continued professional growth. They will also reflect on their experiences working with Family Medicine Physicians. This assignment is listed on Canvas and included in the appendix at the end of this document.
5. Aquifer Case
All students are required to complete the Aquifer case “Family Medicine 14: 35-Year-Old with Missed Period” by the assigned due date. Completion will be reviewed, and students who either do not complete the case or spend insufficient time on it will receive a 1% reduction in their final grade.
6. Ethics and Professionalism Workshops
Students will participate in Ethics and Professionalism Workshops with Bioethics, Law and Medical Professionalism (BLMP) Faculty. The ethics session has a required assignment that must be submitted to Canvas one week prior to the session. The professionalism workshop has a prereading that must be reviewed before the session. An unexcused absence from either of these sessions will result in a grade reduction of 1%.
7. Well-Being Rounds/Harn Museum Tour
Students will participate in Well-Being Rounds with Dr. Beverly Dede and a Harn Museum Tour. An unexcused absence from this session will result in a grade reduction of 1%.
Required Textbooks and Resources
There are required readings to prepare for some Friday Educational Sessions. Please check Canvas for your rotation’s reading schedule and access to these materials.
Many readings are also available as AI-generated podcasts via LMNotebook and are posted on Canvas. While screened for accuracy, these may contain errors. If you have questions, refer to the original article on Canvas.
Recommended Textbooks and Resources
FMAC Clerkship Study Guide and Recommended Readings
The 6-week clerkship covers a broad range of material. Clinical rotations and educational sessions provide essential experience but may not address all topics relevant to the shelf exam or future practice. To help supplement your learning, a weekly study guide with recommended readings is provided. Some resources are also available as AI-generated podcasts posted on Canvas While screened for accuracy, these may contain errors. If you have questions, refer to the
original article on Canvas.
Case Files: Family Medicine. Toy, Briscoe, Britton & Heidelbaugh. 2020. Fifth Edition.
This book provides case-based discussions of common topics and problems encountered in the ambulatory care setting. Patient cases are presented followed by open ended questions regarding next best steps in evaluation and management. This is followed by a brief chapter reviewing key learning points from the case. This is a concise resource that could be used easily alongside Qbanks or other study resources. It is not thorough enough to serve as a stand- alone study tool.
Essentials of Family Medicine. Smith, Schrager & WinklerPrins. 2019. Seventh Edition.
An in-depth, comprehensive textbook on preventive care and common issues in the ambulatory care setting. It serves as an excellent reference, but may be too extensive to read in full during the clerkship.
Computer Requirements:
Students are required to bring their laptops to clinical sites. While some clinics may have computers or workstations for student use, these are not available at all locations. Each clinic will provide a workspace for students to perform clinical work on their laptops and a secure area to store personal items. Please ask your attending physician or clinic director about storage options at your site.
Mid-Clerkship Formative Feedback:
Students must obtain written formative feedback from a faculty member at each clinic site and submit it by the end of the rotation. We recommend choosing a supervisor with whom you’ve had significant contact. Feedback should be completed during Week 2 and Week 5 of the clerkship.
A Formative Feedback Form is available on Canvas. It mirrors the final Evaluation Form and includes a self-assessment section that students must complete before meeting with their
preceptor. This self-assessment is designed to guide a constructive discussion about your strengths and areas for growth, helping you set educational goals for the remainder of the rotation.
Student Responsibilities:
- When you first meet with your attending physician, remind them about the feedback form and agree on a time to review it together in the second week at each Family Medicine site.
- Complete your self-assessment BEFORE meeting with your attending.
- Bring the feedback form to the meeting, ensure your attending completes it, and upload a copy to Canvas under the appropriate assignment.
Assessment:
Observed History and Physical (H&P) (Formative):
Each student must complete at least one faculty-observed focused history and physical exam (H&P) during Week 1 and Week 4 of the clerkship—one at each clinical site, for a total of two observations. Faculty will provide written feedback using the Observed H&P Form (see appendix). Completed forms must be submitted to Canvas by the designated due date.
Clinical Performance Score (Summative):
Clerkships now offer on-demand evaluations in New Innovations, giving you the ability to request evaluations directly from the faculty and residents you work with. You’ll be able to choose who evaluates you, generate the evaluation request yourself, and New Innovations will immediately send them a prompt to complete it. (On the faculty/resident side, the evaluation form will look the same—it will just arrive sooner.) This system is designed to help you receive more timely and meaningful feedback, since you can request an evaluation shortly after working with someone, rather than relying on evaluations submitted at the end of the rotation, often weeks later. If you have questions or concerns, please reach out to your course administrator. For technical issues with New Innovations evaluations, contact Michael Bruce at mbruce@ufl.edu.For each 3- week clinic site, students must request at least one evaluation from an attending they have worked with. Additional evaluations are encouraged if students worked with other attendings. An evaluation is required from any attending with whom the student worked for four or more halfday sessions. Each attending may submit only one evaluation per student for the entire clerkship. Evaluations may not be submitted by nurse practitioners or PAs.
At the Main Street clinic, residents may complete evaluations, but at least one evaluation must come from an attending. Students are responsible for selecting their faculty evaluators in New Innovations, in accordance with College of Medicine guidelines. Clinical performance evaluations make up 70% of the final grade.
NBME Shelf Exam (Summative):
The NBME Shelf Exam is worth 20% of the final grade. The NBME score for the clerkship is calculated by dividing your Equated Percent Correct (EPC) score by 4.75. 20% is the maximum score available for this activity.
There is not a minimum exam pass score for the clerkship. However, students who score below the 5th percentile nationally need to meet with the clerkship director to discuss whether a test-taking remediation plan should be developed to promote improved performance on subsequent NBME exams, including Step 2 CK.
Small Group Peer Teaching (Summative):
Please refer to the previous section labeled “Learning Activities” for a full description of this activity.
SMART Goals/Reflection Exercise (Summative):
Please refer to the previous section labeled “Learning Activities” for a full description of this activity.
Professionalism Mini Evaluation Exercise (Formative)
The Professionalism Mini Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) is an instrument used to assess professionalism in clinical training. The evaluator rates the trainee on 24 different directly
observable items of medical professionalism over four different skill areas: doctor-patient relationship skills, reflective skills, time management, and interprofessional relationship skills.
Grade Cutoffs:
As you know, the Family Medicine clerkship is launching a new assessment structure this year (70 % Clinical Performance Score, 20 % NBME, 5 % Peer-Teaching, 5 % SMART Goal). Because these changes make past grade data unreliable, we are using provisional grade cut-offs for the first rotation while we gather fresh evidence under the new system.
What happens after Rotation 2?
- Data review. We will analyze score distributions, reliability, and fairness immediately after Rotation 1 ends.
- Setting final cut-offs. Using the Rotation 1 and 2 data, we will confirm whether a single set of cut-offs works for the rest of the year or whether rotation-specific thresholds are needed.
- Guarantee to Rotation 1 students
- If later analysis leads to higher cut-offs, your grades will not be lowered.
- If later analysis leads to lower cut-offs, we will move Rotation 1 students up accordingly
- In short, your grade can only stay the same or improve—never decrease—because of adjustments made after Rotation 1
We will share the final decision with the entire class before Rotation 3 begins.
Final Grade Appeals:
All requests for grade meetings or grade grievance must be submitted within one month of the posting of the final grade per UFCOM Policies and Procedures. All requests must be submitted via the Qualtrics survey found on the Phase-2 canvas page or here: Clerkship Grade Meeting Request Form. No meeting requests via email or otherwise will be accepted.
Required Clinical Presentations, Skills, And Procedures:
The clerkship is designed to ensure exposure to core presentations, skills, and procedures. Students must log each required experience in New Innovations to be eligible for graduation. If you are unable to observe any of the required clinical experiences or diagnoses, alternative Aquifer cases are available as substitutes.
Please notify Dr. Miller by the fourth week of the clerkship if you have not been able to complete a required physical exam skill or data interpretation, so that an alternative clinical experience can be arranged.
Video instructions for logging cases in New Innovations are available on the Phase 2 Canvas page.
Failure to log any required clinical experience, diagnosis, abnormal physical exam finding, or data
interpretation will result in a grade reduction for each missed entry, with a potential reduction of up to 1% of the total grade. A screenshot of your completed case-log must uploaded to Canvas by the end of the rotation.
Policy on student evaluations:
- Each student must complete at least 75% of all assigned faculty, resident, and small group leader evaluation forms associated with a course/clerkship in each year of enrollment. There is an expectation of 100% completion on overall course and clerkship evaluations.
- Every student is expected to respond in a professional manner to each item which she/he feels qualified to answer
- Strict confidentiality of responses is assured. Evaluation data (numerical ratings and student comments) is de-identified. However, the completion of evaluations will be tracked.