Preliminary Clinical Training / 5th Semester

Students begin their clinical education by attending the Family Practice I / Internal Medicine I program (formerly known as The Fifth semester) which is taught at U.S. clinical sites. This program serves as a bridge between the basic science curriculum and the clinical science curriculum. The course concentrates on improving the student's physical examination and diagnostic skills. The course incorporates a review of the basic sciences and their relationship to the practice of medicine, in a clinical setting. The course provides instruction in clinical procedures and various clinical skills that the student will be required to master as the student's medical education continues. The Foundations of Clinical Medicine course provides the student with the necessary skills to appropriately communicate with patients, elicit information from patients, and to incorporate that information with the information obtained in the physical examination of the patient. By the end of the course the student is expected to be able to provide an integrated analysis of the patient's symptoms and to be familiar with various treatment options.

Presently, students attend one of AUA’s four locations in the U.S. – The Physician Education Group in Atlanta, GA, Kingsbrook Jewish Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, Wyckoff Heights Medical Center in Brooklyn, NY, or Richmond University Medical Center in Staten Island, NY.  Additional new sites are proposed for Puerto Rico beginning in the second quarter of 2010.