A community medicine clerkship on the Navajo Indian reservation

An elective clerkship in community medicine for medical students has been conducted for 16 years on the Navajo Indian reservation. An important part of the clerkship is a project in which most students select a health problem which they investigate using epidemiological methods of assessment and for which they seek a solution. The requisites for the projects are that real health problems are involved, scientifically sound methods are used, usable information is provided, and data collection can be completed within the clerkship tenure. Topics for the projects are selected jointly by the students and the faculty members from several general subject areas; this allows the work of individual students to be carried out as independent subprojects of larger projects, and this, in turn, produces more information about and has more impact on the problems addressed. Other clerkship objectives also are achieved through investigative projects that may involve students in planning, organization, and evaluation of health care and in public health practice.