Mission

To help our students achieve competence in the core knowledge and skills of family medicine: caring for patients in a way that is comprehensive, continuous, contextual, complex, and coordinated, and that treats patients as whole biopsychosocial and spiritual beings.

Additionally, students will recognize that high quality information, balanced with patient's preferences and clinical judgment, is the basis for intelligent decision making. Developing an understanding of the intellectual process and acquiring the skills for life-long learning will assist students in achieving the goals of the Family Medicine Clerkship.

In Syracuse, this mission is approached via a five-credit rotation offered in a five-week block. Clinical components of the course occur in the offices of board certified family physicians in Syracuse and surrounding suburbs, although some students may be assigned to preceptors in rural communities in the central and northern New York region. Also included are didactic activities that explore the nature of the physician-patient relationship and introduce concepts in the assessment and management of the common vexations that bring people to see their doctor.

In Binghamton, this mission is approached via a five-credit longitudinal clerkship that places each student with a family physician mentor for one afternoon each week throughout the entire year. Also included are didactic activities that explore the nature of the physician-patient relationship and introduce concepts in the assessment and management of the common vexations that bring people to see their doctor.