Longitudinal FCM

Family and Community Medicine 110 (FCM 110) is a required clerkship for third year students. Because both local and national data suggest that the optimal way to learn about primary care is in a longitudinal model, in 2017 the FCM 110 was converted from a block rotation model into a longitudinal experience for all students.

The longitudinal format for FCM 110 allows students to develop more meaningful continuity relationships with patients, preceptors and the clinical team over the course of their third year. In the longitudinal model, students have a full day of clinic every other week over their entire third year so that they can provide primary care and see patients back multiple times over the clerkship. To supplement their learning, on weeks when students do not have a day of Family Medicine clinic, they participate in Family Medicine seminars to discuss key issues in primary care.

During FCM 110, students learn to diagnose, assess and manage acute and chronic outpatient conditions, such as diabetes, hypertension, and musculoskeletal concerns. In addition, students focus on preventive medicine, behavioral health and patient education. In the Bay Area, students are assigned to a combination of clinical practice sites including various Bay Area Kaiser locations, UCSF Family Practice Residency Program at Zuckerberg San Francisco General, safety-net community health clinics, UCSF Family Medicine Center at Lakeshore, Contra Costa Regional Medical Center outpatient clinics, John Muir Health Center, Palo Alto Medical Foundation, and a Bay Area clinical practices.

Students’ schedules at all sites include one day of clinical sessions every other week for 12 months. Additional time every other week is devoted to interactive case based seminars. In addition, special curricular experiences during the clerkship include outpatient geriatric care and musculoskeletal workshops. Current UCSF students can access information on individual sites and clinics on the FCM 110 space on iROCKET.