Students rotate through obstetrics, gynecology and gynecologic oncology in two-week blocks. During this time, students participate in labor and delivery, inpatient wards, clinics, ultrasound and the operating room at Jackson Memorial Hospital. Faculty intermittently work with students in all settings, while residents provide the heart and soul of day to day teaching and clinical guidance, with midwives, nurses and ultrasound technicians also participating in student education.
The didactic curriculum consists of weekly sessions with students in one group for lectures and break-out sessions in small group exercises. Recently added to the clerkship is a session at the Patient Safety Center featuring a birthing simulator and pelvic model training, an ethics group discussion, and instruction in communication skills. Opportunity to participate in the care of patients seeking abortions has just begun. Students are assigned in groups of four to seven to a faculty group advisor with whom they meet weekly throughout the clerkship to discuss cases. The clerkship also requires a structured exercise in evidence-based medicine.
Ultimately, the students learn from patients, who come from diverse cultural, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds, and who present many and extreme manifestations of disease. This provides the curious and compassionate physician-in-training an invaluable opportunity to learn the fundamentals of caring for women’s reproductive health needs.
Electives are available for fourth year UM and other medical students in maternal-fetal medicine, gynecologic oncology, gynecology, urogynecology, reproductive health/family planning, ultrasound and reproductive endocrinology and infertility.
Tameka Collins, MSEd
Sr. Program Coordinator, Division of Education
Email: tcollins@med.miami.edu
Phone: 305-585-5586