Relation of the internal medicine residency and the medical school curriculum

Students should have contact with faculty members in internal medicine throughout their medical education. Faculty internists should play a role in admission of students, in the basic science courses of the first year of medical school, and in the introductory course to clinical medicine and pathophysiology of the second year of medical school. The core medical clerkship is not an academic advertisement and should not be designed specifically to attract students to internal medicine. The core clerkship is designed for all students, regardless of their intended specialty and should include inpatient and outpatient care in a context and at a pace that allow time for reflection, reading, and problem solving. The advanced medicine experience should give students at least a glimpse of the mastery of the discipline of internal medicine. For students entering internal medicine, the fourth year of medical school and first year of residency could be combined to improve the content and quality of both.