Hello all,
My name is Doug, an M3 at FAU. I'm also one of the Curriculum Representatives that works with the faculty on course design and feedback. Just to clarify for those of you wondering about FAU's clinical rotations - a major trend we focus on during clinical years is a longitudinal, global perspective of a patient's experience. Although we do have traditional month-long rotations (Peds, Medicine, Surgery, etc.), we also have "Outpatient" blocks throughout 3rd year that combine experiences that are usually segregated in other schools. For example, this week I spent time in Family Practice, ER, Radiology, and Geriatrics. In family practice on Monday I reviewed my history- and physical-taking; in radiology on Wednesday, I was taught how to read Xrays. In the ER that night and geriatrics this morning, I had to use history/physical skills as well as X-ray interpretation skills. This type of association is intentional and tends to recur time and again throughout the 3rd year.
A drawback to this design is that we find ourselves in new environments pretty often. I introduced myself to 3 new attendings this week (fairly unusual, but you get the point). Three comments: 1) This is by design, and not due to lack of physician availability; 2) our traditional rotations like surgery and peds, where you would need consistent exposure to attendings and patients, are month-long so the jostling from place to place is minimized; and 3) FAU's faculty is
very open to feedback, and our 3rd year rotations will probably not look exactly the same in 3 years.
Physicians are not in short supply for us. In the first 2 years, we work once a week, one-on-one with an internal med doc in the community. For 3rd and 4th year, we're pretty much the only medical students in Palm Beach County and the doctors there are very enthusiastic about having students for the first time. I work mostly in Broward for M3, and still haven't felt like I needed more doctors to make my experience more beneficial. The story above sounds anecdotal. We don't even work with psychiatrists in the first two years, except during lecture. Worst case scenario, this is an exception to our clinical exposure, and I'm confident that our faculty would find a new set-up.
Hope this helps anybody who is considering FAU. Congrats to those who are joining us in a few months! If anybody has any more questions, I'll keep track of this thread for a few days or you can email me at
[email protected]
