M3 Refresher Course

Hello New M3’s,

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This course offers you a setting to become refamiliarized with the skills required to take a patient’s history, examine the patient, and write up the encounter.

This course formalizes the old “clinical refresher” that was offered to students in the past who have taken time away from clinical work and are preparing to return to full-time clinical rotations. Students who have been away from Rush for 6 or more months just before M3 year or prior to completing M3 year are required to take this course. It is optional for students who have been away for less than 6 months or who have been away after completing the M3 core clerkships.

You will complete at least 3 independent History & Physicals, write up and present those patients to an attending physician from the Departments of Internal Medicine or Emergency Medicine at Rush or Stroger. The attending will also review the your write-ups and provide feedback. You should turn in the H&P’s (with attending comments) to the course director.

I’ve created a history and physical template you can print and use based on one I found a student using. Print as many as you need, write on it, and use it to make your write-up. Please let me know how to change it to make it more useful to you.

So in a nutshell:

  • Shadow the attending or resident for a few patients
  • They will pick a nice patient who will be there a while and you do an H&P on them
  • When you’re done, sit down and collect your thoughts, then do a SHORT presentation to the attending. While you do, give the attending the evaluation form (available here) to fill out. Collect this back and you’ll have to get this to me.
  • Later complete a written H&P and send this to the attending; they will make some comments on it and send it back to you. You’ll send this back to me as well. One of the secretaries can help you scan this and email it to me, Ms. Taylor (at County) or Ms. McCoy (at Rush).
  • You’ll also need to complete a written self-reflection piece. See the syllabus for more details on this.

You are also encouraged to shadow resident physicians who are working with the attending physician.

For those of you rotating in an emergency department, here’s an approach to the ER patient that we use with our fourth year students. You may find it helpful.

Please feel free to contact me with any questions.

– Rahul Patwari