Family Medicine | Predoctoral Programs

The Clinical Experience I course focuses on learning the art and science of applied clinical care by exposure to clinical models and repeated skills practice through participating actively in the care of patients. Students learn and develop appropriate communication and examination skills while becoming familiar with the operations of the entire clinic health service team. 

The Early Clinical Experience II course is designed to teach second-year medical students the necessary skills to obtain an accurate history and perform a comprehensive physical examination, continuing the experiences begun in the ECE I course. We also offer the Assessing Medical Evidence course which involves learning to read the medical literature critically.

Required course for all third-year medical students enrolled in courses at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center. The clerkship provides a broad-based introduction to Family Medicine and is based on ambulatory and in-patient clinical experiences. Students have the opportunity to learn about Hospice and Palliative Medicine, to reach out to the community locally and in rural parts alongside Family Medicine physicians and to gain valuable clinical skills for their time as physicians.

All fourth-year medical students are required to successfully complete two 1-month rotations in any of the following specialties: Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Psychiatry. Students actively participate in the ambulatory care clinics which include the Family Medicine Center at the TTUHSC with community-based experiences with a local hospice, Grand Expectations and the Senior House Calls program.

All fourth-year medical students have the option of taking an elective in clinical specialties. The elective in Family Medicine, which is also available to fourth-year students at other medical schools, is flexible to allow students to design a curriculum that fits their interests—academic, urban, suburban, rural, or a combination.

Medical students have the opportunity to elect a four-week preceptorship in Family Medicine between the first- and second-year of medical school training as a preclinical preceptorship. It provides students with the opportunity to work with a family physician in a community setting and understand the principles of Family Medicine and community medicine. A fourth-year clinical preceptorship also provides students with the opportunity to actively participate in the management of patients in a private practice setting with a clinical faculty member.