Predoctoral Education Program

The goal of the Family Medicine and Community Health Predoctoral Education Program is to foster the development of skills, attitudes, and behaviors among medical students, residents, and faculty that enhance and encourage life-long adult learning, the role of the physician as teacher, as well as dedication to community service and leadership.

The program also emphasizes the importance of disease prevention and health promotion by demonstrating the benefits of providing continuous, comprehensive, coordinated, and personalized care to an ever more diversified group of patients, their families, and communities.

Clerkship
University of Miami medical students are required to complete a six-week rotation in Family and Geriatric Medicine in their junior year. The junior student spends four full days with an office-based community preceptor and one full day per week in varied didactic sessions. Sessions take the form of clinically relevant seminars with small group and case-based discussion to augment the student’s clinical experiences. The classroom sessions are varied and include:

Introduction to international health
Care of the terminally ill
Management of HIV/AIDS in primary care
Geriatric assessment tools

Electives
The department also offers dynamic opportunities for senior students to sample the variety and excitement that characterizes a career in family practice in the Senior Electives Program. Students may spend two to six weeks on any of the following clinical rotations:

Family Medicine In-Patient/Hospital Wards Clerkship
Family Medicine Community Preceptorship (University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Students Only; Prior Approval Required)
Community Health Elective Coordinated by the South Florida Area Health
Education Centers (AHEC) Program
Rural Family Elective in the Florida Keys
Research projects in Family Medicine and Community Health

Externships
There are a variety of externship opportunities for senior medical students. Medical students from LCME approved United States and Canadian Medical Schools can schedule two to four-week externships in any of the Senior Electives Program listed below:

Family Medicine In-Patient/Hospital Wards Clerkship
Community Health Elective Coordinated by the South Florida Area Health
Education Centers (AHEC) Program
Rural Family Elective in the Florida Keys
Research projects in Family Medicine and Community Health

Family Medicine Interest Group
The Family Medicine Interest Group (FMIG) is an active student-run organization. It is one of two organizations that are funded by the State and National levels at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine.

FMIG provides an organized mechanism for students' input into the State and National American Academy of Family Physicians (AAFP) policymaking process. This group helps acquaint people with family medicine/practice and the opportunities available in this field. Students can aspire to several appointed and elected positions within FMIG.

We are actively involved in Strolling Through the Match process to assisting students in residency searches. Interactive meetings are scheduled year-round and panels of physicians to inform and encourage students to learn about this primary care field. We participate in the primary care week activities, organize events such as residency fairs and career days to provide guidance and facilitate interactions among students, residents, and residency directors from across Florida. We also inform students about clinical research opportunities available and encourage participation via grants/funds.

FMIG encourages active learning and promotes the specialty of family practice. Our group not only facilitates student interaction with students at other medical schools, but also helps them develop leadership skills and national contacts.

Preceptorship Program
Generalist physicians practicing in the South Florida Community are invited to join our Preceptorship Program. Physicians become part of our network of volunteer faculty and as such are afforded multiple opportunities for teaching. These included:

Mentoring and teaching students within your own practice
Evaluation of students during formal presentation seminars
Small-group leader for Sexual Issues in Medical Practice

Benefits include:

CME and AAFP credits for teaching
Voluntary faculty appointment
The challenges of students to hone your skills
Medicine Family Carmichael Lynn the for fees registration
Free departmental Grand Rounds every Wednesday morning (CME activity)

Contact Information
Shelley Manning
Phone: 305-243-2953
Fax: 305-243-1251
smanning2@med.miami.edu