Clinical Rotation Descriptions

  • HAP 570 Medicine Clerkship
  • HAP 571 Obstetrics and Gynecology
  • HAP 572 General Surgery Clerkship
  • HAP 574 Emergency Medicine
  • HAP 575 Psychiatry Clerkship
  • HAP 576 Medicine Preceptorship
  • HAP 577 Pediatrics Preceptorship
  • HAP 579 Geriatrics Clerkship
  • HAP 580 Orthopedics
  • HAP 581 Clinical Elective

HAP 570 Medicine Clerkship (5 credits)

The medicine clerkship provides the student with practical clinical experience in caring for adult hospitalized patients on a medical service. This clerkship is intended to strengthen the student’s skills in developing a comprehensive database with regard to a wide variety of common inpatient medical problems, stressing cognitive and affective information to enable the student to recognize normal and assess deviation from normal. Further, this clerkship teaches the student the indications, limitations and methodology of inpatient diagnostic procedures and therapeutic regimens, in addition to affording the student the opportunity to formulate organized and complete inpatient records and problem lists. Finally, the clerkship is intended to teach the student to respect and appreciate the contributions of other health professions and strengthen interpersonal and interactive skills needed to be a contributing team member.


HAP 571 Obstetrics and Gynecology (5 credits)

The purpose of the OB/GYN rotation is to provide the student with practical clinical experience in the differential diagnosis, evaluation, and management of normal and abnormal conditions in obstetrics and gynecology. Students will gain skills in obtaining patient histories, physical diagnosis and medical decision making through exposure to a broad base of patients with a wide variety of personal and social issues that influence patient care.  In addition, this rotation provides the student with practical experience in the areas of family planning, ante- and postpartum care, and patient counseling.  Further, through formulation of complete medical records, the student will augment skills previously acquired in inpatient and ambulatory diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.


HAP 572 General Surgery Clerkship (5 credits)

The purpose of your surgical rotation is to provide the practical clinical experience in the evaluation and management of inpatient and outpatient surgical patients.  Students will gain skills in obtaining focused patient histories, physical assessment and surgical decision making through exposure to a broad base of “undifferentiated” patients and the wide variety of personal and social issues that influence patient care. This clerkship is designed to augment, strengthen and refine the student's skills by teaching the indications, limitations and methodology of diagnostic procedures and surgical interventions.  In addition, much of this rotation is hands-on including wound care, suturing, venous access, drain management etc. Emphasis will be placed on the surgical problems commonly encountered in primary care settings. Finally, the clerkship is intended to teach the student to respect and appreciate the contributions of other health professionals in the overall delivery of health care with special attention to the Operating room culture the ‘peri-operative experience’ and the surgical patient


HAP 574 Emergency Medicine (5 credits)

The purpose of the emergency medicine clerkship is to provide the student with practical clinical experience in the emergency medical care of the acutely ill or injured patient.  This clerkship is intended to provide clinical experience in developing strategies in directed data collection, physical diagnosis, medical decision making and patient management skills emphasizing a broad range of clinical challenges in emergency medicine. It will also stress those cognitive and affective skills, which will enable the student to differentiate between normal and abnormal findings, and assess abnormal findings. Students will receive a through exposure to a broad base of “undifferentiated” patients and the wide variety of personal and social issues that influence emergency patient care.  Students will learn to recognize life threatening situations and assist with resuscitation.  Further, this clerkship teaches the student the indications, limitations, and methodology of emergency department diagnostic procedures and therapeutic regimens, in addition to affording the student the opportunity to formulate organized and complete emergency department records and problem lists.  The student will gain an appreciation for practice management and the role a PA may play in an emergency practice setting. Finally, the clerkship is intended to teach the student to respect and appreciate the contributions of other health professions in the overall delivery of health care.


HAP 575 Psychiatry Clerkship (4 credits)

The psychiatry rotation provides students practical experience in the evaluation, and management of mental illness. Through clinical interaction with an often misunderstood and undertreated population, students will develop an understanding of the biological and psychosocial factors that influence a variety of psychiatric conditions. They will gain proficiency in obtaining relevant histories, formulating appropriate diagnoses, and constructing rational treatment plans.  This rotation also affords students the opportunity to draw upon previously acquired knowledge to better understand the reciprocal relationship that often exists between physical and psychiatric illnesses.


HAP 576 Medicine Preceptorship (5 credits)

The purpose of the medical preceptorship is to provide the student with practical clinical experience in working with the ambulatory medical patient.  This preceptorship is intended to further augment and develop directed data collection skills emphasizing a wide range of primary care medical problems.  It will also stress those cognitive and affective skills, which will enable the student to recognize normal, and assess abnormal findings.  The student will be familiarized with the indications, limitations, and methodology of ambulatory diagnostic procedures and therapeutics.  Further, they will gain an appreciation for practice management and the role a PA may play in a general medicine/family practice setting.


HAP 577 Pediatrics Preceptorship (5 credits)

The purpose of the pediatric preceptorship is to provide the student with practical clinical experience working with ambulatory pediatric patients. This preceptorship is intended to augment and develop directed data collection and patient management skills emphasizing a wide range of primary care pediatric problems. It will also stress those cognitive and affective skills, which will enable the student to recognize normal findings, and assess abnormal findings. The student will augment skills such as counseling the parent as to normal growth and development, anticipatory guidance, feeding, immunizations, etc., and will become familiar with the indications, limitations, and methodology of ambulatory diagnostic procedures and therapeutics. Further, they will gain an appreciation for practice management and the role a PA may play in a pediatric practice setting


HAP 579 Geriatrics Clerkship (5 credits)

The geriatrics clerkship is designed to provide the student with practical clinical experience working with elderly patients.  It is intended to augment and strengthen the students’ skills in developing a thorough database for the most common geriatric syndromes, and to teach the students how to appropriately modify the approach to diagnostic procedures and therapeutic regimens in the elderly.   Students are given the opportunity to experience the importance of the multi-disciplinary team in the long term care setting, including physical and occupational therapy, wound care, and nutrition


HAP 580 Orthopedics (4 credits)

The purpose of the orthopedics rotation is to provide students with practical experience in the care of patients with musculoskeletal disorders and acute injuries. Students will develop skills in obtaining directed patient histories, performing focused physical exams, problem solving and clinical decision making through exposure to diverse patient populations. While on this rotation, students will also learn the indications, limitations and interpretation of laboratory and imaging studies used to evaluate orthopedic patients. All students will become familiar with pro-operative, intra-operative and post-operative patient management and assist in orthopedic surgical procedures. The rotation also exposes students to other members of the health care team and it allows students to reinforce and develop respect for each other while caring for patients


HAP 581 Clinical Elective (4 credits)

The purpose of the clinical elective is to provide the student with the opportunity to explore an area of medical or surgical practice beyond basic required rotations.  Students are encouraged to choose an area of emerging importance in healthcare and PA practice, or a potential employment setting.  This rotation is intended to further augment and develop data collection skills in the chosen medical or surgical discipline and will be chosen in consultation with their program faculty advisor.  These rotations will be scheduled later in the clinical year to allow for a more informed selection process.  It will also stress those cognitive and affective skills, which will enable the student to recognize normal, and assess abnormal findings.  The student will be familiarized with the indications, limitations, and methodology of diagnostic procedures and therapeutics for the selected discipline.  Further, they will gain an appreciation for practice management and the role a PA may play in this particular setting.