I got asked some questions, and I wanted to post the response I wrote out since it was long and it would probably be helpful for others....
Regarding the "presentations" that PIL students do that IFM doesn't. Are they real? What are they?:
They do exist. These are called IPAs (individual process assessment or something like that). There are 4 of these total over the 4 years. They are 24 hour exams. On the first day, you sit alone in a room, are given a case (just like during group sessions, except you only get one page with lots of information instead of 5 pages with the same info spread across the pages). So basically you have the patient complaint, history, physical and lab findings. You have to write down pertinent data, come up with 3 diagnoses, and make learning issues. Just like group, but on your own. This part really isn't stressful. What is important here isn't that you diagnosed the patient correctly, but that you are identifying important data, making links between the data, and showing that your clinical reasoning process is developing. Then over the next 24 hours, you research your learning issues and put together a concept map for the patient. This is a lot like what we do during clinical years-- have a patient, look up the disease, be ready to do a presentation on it. You also have to re-rank your hypotheses after you've done some research. The second day, you sit down with a faculty person for an hour and go through your concept map and your day 1 process. You don't have to have the map memorized, and you basically walk the faculty member through what your line of thinking was on day one, why it maybe changed after research, and then your map. You will get asked questions, but they aren't usually terribly "off the wall"-- usually just for clarification or to see if you can make the bridge between what you've researched and a similar situation/disease/etc.
Some people don't sleep over these nights (again-- 2 during first year, 2 during second), but I know that most people get sleep-- and a fair amount (6 hours or more). Most of the stress comes from the time crunch (just don't make too many learning issues, which the older students tell you this ahead of time) and who they have (i.e. the harder graders vs. the easier ones). That's the subjective stuff.
The cool thing about this-- I was talking to a 4th year and she was like "at the end of such and such rotation, we had to do an HOUR PRESENTATION! It was sooo hard" And I was like "oh, you did IFM then, huh?" and she said "yeah.... how did you know?"
These exams are the big times where we "do our own research" and all that jazz, not all during the year. Oh yeah-- no classes during this.
Only real rules-- no talking about the case to each other or other PIL students (in years past). Faculty, doctors, family-- anyone else!!-- is fair game for information.
This sort of thing is repeated, sort of, during your primary care practicum. During the practicum, you make Learning Issues and research/write up a selected patient that you saw. Then you sit down with two faculty (one MD, one non-MD faculty) and they go through a case with you. Very similar, but not 24 hours. ;-)
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Just a little hit on the primary care practicum-- what it is, where it is, yada yada.
The Practicum is in Philadelphia. It begins in late April. Classes are over. 12 hours a week in the doc's office. 8 hours a week in community work. Write up the cases and then do the thing mentioned above at the mid and end.
You can relocate for the practicum. Some people went home, some went to stay in the same city as their significant others. If you do this, you need to find your own doc to work with, but it's worth it if you are homesick or miss your S.O. Otherwise you are in the "Philly area" (this means you may have to commute, same as 3rd year-- up to an hour). But you are only working 2 or 3 days a week.
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Scheduling--- I've said PIL is 9-4 and some say IFM is 8-12-- how do I feel about the longer days...
Regarding PIL vs. IFM scheduling. Please reference:
http://webcampus.med.drexel.edu/ifm/calendar.asp?year=1
You should be able to access this without ID. But if you can't, the main idea is that IFM goes to class from 8-3 or 4 on average. Also, on wednesdays they have to do their community work, and there is also patient clinical experience in there too (not sure if it's on this calendar).
You may or may not be able to get to our calendars through here:
http://webcampus.med.drexel.edu/pil/ (click on the different block websites and calendar will be listed 1st).
Personally, I could group as classtime, cause it's required time at school (note-- class not required, but I attended a lot of them). So my days at school were about 9-4. 9-12 is group on MWF 1st year and 12-1 is lunch and 1-??? is class. Again, it varies between year/case/week and such. Sometimes we'd only have group for a day, or only morning classes. Other times we'd be there all day. Just depended on scheduling. We are at school as much as IFM, but 9 hours of our time in first year is dedicated to group therefore less class time.
PS: If i said that IFM is in class from 8-12 before, I don't know what I was thinking, cause I checked the calendar, and while there are some 8-12 days, they are definitely there into the afternoons.
