Student Elective Information
Internal Medicine Sub-Internship
Accepting Visiting Medical Students
No.
Requirements
Length of Rotation
How Do I Apply?
Learning Objectives
History Skills
Advanced Elective in the Medical Intensive Care Unit
This elective offers experience in the Medical Intensive Care Unit (MICU) at YNHH. Students are on call every fourth night with an intern and resident pair, assisting them in the admission of patients. Students follow patients in the MICU and assist in their care with their intern and resident. It provides the opportunity for participating in the acute management of common medical emergencies. The elective is offered for a period of two or four weeks.
Analytical Clinical Cardiology
Cardiology Elective (Completed at YNHH or the VA Connecticut Healthcare System)
Clinical Allergy, Clinical Immunobiology, and Arthritis Elective
Students electing this course will attend the weekly arthritis clinic at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System on Tuesday afternoons, and at YNHH on Thursday afternoons, preceded by a Rheumatology Teaching Conference. Additionally, students will attend the weekly Allergy and Immunology Clinic for adults held at YNHH on Tuesday mornings, followed by a one-hour conference at 10 a.m. Also, if they choose to, students can attend the Friday morning Pediatric Allergy Clinic from 8:30 - 9:30 a.m., Allergy/Clinical Immunology Journal Club Wednesday at 1 p.m., and a seminar Friday at 8:30 a.m. Students may also join in consultations with the Rheumatology and/or Allergy & Immunology Services at both the VA and YNHH. This elective is limited to one student.
Clinical Gastroenterology Elective (Completed at Yale New Haven Hospital)
This is an opportunity for students to see a wide variety of gastrointestinal problems and patients, with an opportunity for discussion and review. The student will be an integral part of the inpatient GI consult service, primarily working in an inpatient setting. The student should plan to attend this rotation on a full-time basis. It is offered to two students throughout the year every four weeks. This elective is recommended for fourth year students.
The Connecticut Hospice (Branford, Conn.)
Endocrinology Elective
The student will participate as an active member of the endocrine training program, making daily rounds with the metabolism fellows and residents and attending physicians. He or she will see inpatient consultations, participate in the endocrine clinics and participate in the regularly scheduled metabolism-endocrine conferences. The assignment will require students full-time for four weeks. Limited to one student per block throughout the year.
Hematology Elective
This clerkship is designed to provide intensive exposure to clinical hematology by direct participation in the activities of a regular clinical hematology service. Students will work up new patients and consults in rotation with the fellows and residents and will attend outpatient clinics. They will participate in daily hematology ward rounds and bone marrow readings and weekly inpatient/outpatient clinical reviews and clinical research conferences. The rotation is limited to one student for four weeks.
Hematology-Oncology Elective
This is an advanced clerkship offered to students who have completed the general in-patient medical clerkship. The elective is limited to three students for four weeks on a full-time basis throughout the year.
Externship in HIV/AIDS
Students desiring an intensive, more advanced in patient experience with the care of HIV infected persons may spend one month as a sub-intern on the Donaldson/Atkins Firm. The Firm offers a combined general internal medicine/HIV ward experience. Previously, Donaldson/Atkins admitted only HIV positive persons. However, with the advent of highly active antiretroviral therapy and effective opportunistic infection (OI) prophylaxis, the HIV inpatient census has decreased and both HIV positive and general medical patients are cared for. The firm practices a multidisciplinary HIV care approach. There are two teams, each comprised of an attending, two residents, two interns, and one third-year medical student. On average, 30-50 percent of the patients are HIV-positive. Students who elect an externship on Donaldson/Atkins function as an integral member of one of the two teams. However, the student does not substitute for, but works in tandem with one of the interns, essentially as a second intern. Activities include supervised initial evaluation and daily management of patients with HIV disease; daily rounds with the team; case presentations to the attending physician; and attendance of tri-weekly attending rounds, and weekly firm conference, during which various HIV related infections and non-infectious problems are discussed.
In addition, the students work closely with members from social work, nursing, pastoral care, and discharge planning to better appreciate the multidisciplinary nature of HIV care. Students can also attend one outpatient HIV clinic per week in the Nathan Smith Clinic (NSC) in order to supplement their inpatient experience with the ambulatory aspects of HIV disease. This elective accommodates one student per month and offers a unique opportunity to participate in comprehensive HIV care in the AIDS Care Program, preferably upon completion of all basic clinical clerkships. A previous medical or surgical sub-internship is useful preparation.
Infectious Disease Elective
Students participate as active members of the consultative and training program in Infectious Diseases at Yale New Haven Hospital and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. This includes daily work rounds, daily attending rounds, microbiology rounds four times a week, two weekly clinical conferences and one didactic conference. In addition, residents may have the opportunity to evaluate patients in the outpatient HIV clinics.
Nephrology - Renal Elective (Yale New Haven Hospital & VA Connecticut Healthcare System)
This clerkship in clinical nephrology offers the student an opportunity for in-depth learning regarding problems in fluid and electrolyte disturbances, acute renal failure, chronic renal failure, and hypertension. Emphasis is placed on problem recognition, pathophysiologic diagnosis, evidence-based clinical judgment and management based on pathophysiologic principles. The primary activity involves the inpatient consultation service in which the student works up and follows several patients per week, and participates in daily rounds with the attending physicians, postdoctoral fellows and residents on service. An introduction to hemodialysis, peritoneal dialysis, renal transplantation, and renal biopsy histology is also provided. This elective requires full-time participation for four weeks and is limited to two students per block at Yale New Haven Hospital and one student per block at the VA Connecticut Healthcare System.
Occupational/Environmental Medicine Elective
This rotation is designed to provide senior students with an introduction to the principals and practice of occupational environmental medicine. The hope is to fill in gaps missing in most basic medical school curricula and to encourage especially interested students of opportunities for careers in this discipline. The experience is centered around the diagnostic clinic at 135 College Street, New Haven, Conn. In addition, students will have an opportunity to participate in ongoing didactic and research conferences as well as to visit factories and other environmentally contaminated sites which are being evaluated for their role in disease causation. The elective is limited to two students for a four-week block. It is available throughout the year.
Pulmonary and Critical Care Elective (YNHH & VA Connecticut Healthcare System)
Students will work closely with faculty and staff in the Pulmonary section and participate in daily consulting and intensive care rounds. Students will assist in the examination and treatment of patients with various cardiopulmonary diseases, including tuberculosis, chronic obstructive airway disease, asthma, lung cancer, bacterial and fungal lung infection, and other diagnostic problems. They will receive practical instruction in interpreting chest images and pulmonary function tests, clinical and laboratory methods in diagnosis and management, including intensive respiratory care and respiratory therapy, and an opportunity to observe fiberoptic bronchoscopy. Students will receive didactic lectures in a number of areas relating to airway pharmacology, lung cell biology and lung immunology (respiratory cells, immunologic reactions, etc). In addition, students may select one or more of five clinical sessions held weekly. A separate experience is available in intensive care medicine.
Rheumatology Elective
Students taking this elective will actively participate in the Rheumatology service both in the inpatient and outpatient settings and will work closely with the attending and fellow assigned for the month. They will work closely with the faculty member and fellow assigned to the inpatient consultative service at both Yale New Haven Hospital and the VA Connecticut Healthcare System. They are expected to attend rounds and evaluate patients with rheumatic conditions and other diseases with rheumatic manifestations. In addition they will participate in outpatient clinics including two VA Hospital arthritis clinics, and two general Rheumatology clinics at Yale New Haven Hospital. They are expected to attend two weekly conferences sponsored by the Section of Rheumatology. The elective is limited to one student every four weeks throughout the year.