Missing longitudinality
This month I’m on my sub-internship, where fourth-year medical students do their best to act like interns (first-year medical graduates) and take care of patients on the medical service. It’s been fun, fast-paced, a lot of work and a steep learning curve. I feel like I’m getting the hang of it and, as my efficiency improves, will be able to really enjoy it.
Still, I already miss seeing patients for longer than a few days. Our patients come to us to have an acute issue stabilized- most of their care is handled in the outpatient setting. I find myself wishing that I could get to know them better and go to their follow-up visits to see how their illness progresses or resolves.
This was the Cambridge Integrated Clerkship model. It not only allowed us to build relationships with patients over time, but it gave us the chance to see the full course of an illness—something that rarely happens in the era of the two day hospital stay.
