Third Year

Third Year Core Clerkship: Family Medicine

The Family Medicine Clerkship is a required four-week rotation. Students are placed in a community or residency site and become an integral part of the health care team.

The clerkship emphasizes strengthening competencies in history taking, physical examination skills, problem differentiation, disease prevention and management, written and oral presentations. In applying these skills, students develop an understanding of the concept of a medical home in patient care: comprehensive, patient-centered, longitudinal primary care.

Working one-on-one with family physicians, students will integrate knowledge of the basic sciences with the biopsychosocial factors that critically impact a patient’s experience of illness and health in the care of the patient.

Preventive Medicine: The Science of Health and Healing Curriculum

Medical student burnout and high levels of distress during medical school have been well-documented, and there is a growing recognition of the need for preventive- medicine based curriculum in medical education with a focus on health and healing. In response to this need, the third-year family medicine clerkship at many institutions, including the University of Cincinnati, has developed an integrated preventive medicine curriculum to promote self-care and prepare students for patient encounters where wellness and lifestyle practices are discussed.

The purpose of the curriculum is to equip students with tools and strategies to promote their own well-being and resilience, while also enabling them to engage in meaningful conversations with patients about health, healing and lifestyle practices.

The integrated preventive medicine curriculum includes a range of activities, such as debriefing on challenging clinical cases, nutrition and integrative medicine content, and a health and healing workshop. Through these activities, medical students learn to recognize the importance of self-care and develop practical tools for managing stress and promoting well-being. By integrating preventive medicine into the clerkship curriculum, medical students are better prepared to manage the demands of medical school and navigate the challenges of clinical practice. They are also better equipped to provide holistic care to patients that addresses not only their medical needs, but also their well-being and lifestyle practices.

Food Insecurity in Clinical Practice: A Culinary Medicine Teaching Session

Offered in collaboration with the Osher Center for Integrative Health at the University of Cincinnati, this two-hour experiential session introduces medical students to the clinical realities of food insecurity through a collaborative teaching model pairing physician and chef facilitators. Students engage with a series of patient case discussions addressing common clinical and social complexities encountered in nutrition counseling, including chronic disease management, socioeconomic constraints, grief and life transitions, and cultural or household nutrition considerations. In parallel, students prepare a single adaptable base recipe, learning how one foundational dish can be modified to meet varied clinical needs and cultural preferences without altering its nutritional integrity. Emphasis throughout is placed on developing practical counseling skills, including asking rather than assuming, adapting rather than restricting, and offering patients one feasible next step that fits their circumstances. The session concludes with a review of nutrition counseling strategies and regional resources available to support patients and communities, followed by a shared meal that reinforces the session's central premise: effective nutrition guidance must be responsive to the realities of a patient's life.