Doctoring is a required course for all first and second year medical students. The students spend one half-day a week in the office of a pediatrician, Ob/GYN internist or family doctor working alongside a physician-mentor who guides their every step. The students observe and practice crucial clinical skills, such as medical interviewing, history taking, physical diagnosis, and professional conduct that they first learned on campus in small group settings. For more information on becoming a physician-mentor and on the Doctoring course, please visit the Doctoring website.

The Medicine in Action Program (MIAP) is an early professional development opportunity for PLME undergraduate students and Brown medical students.  It offers students the chance to spend some time (generally for one-day visits or for a morning/afternoon) observing Brown medical faculty and alumni in a variety of health care settings.  This is sometimes a student's introduction to the clinical field.  Longer visits may be arranged during the winter or spring break periods. Please visit the Medicine in Action Program website for further information.

The Summer Research Assistantship Program offers PLME students the opportunity to engage in a 10-week research experience. The research must be conducted at Brown University or at an affiliated hospital, under the direction and mentorship of a sponsor with a Brown University faculty appointment. Please visit the Summer Research Assistant Program website for further information.

Summer Research Assistantship Program

This Whole Patient Program is for Program in Liberal Medical Education (PLME) first-year undergraduate students. It emphasizes the significance of the doctor-patient relationship and attempts to demonstrate to students the importance of treating the patient's illness as opposed to treating the disease. A guest physician presents along with his/her invited guest patient. Recognizing the limited medical knowledge of the undergraduate students, the program does not attempt to address topics from a clinical perspective. Rather, it stresses the role of empathetic understanding in the practice of medicine.

The Whole Physician Program focuses on life as a medical student and as a physician.  Through panel presentations, it attempts to show PLME undergraduates:

• that life at Brown Medical School is manageable -- by inviting Brown med students to present their experiences;
• that there is "life after medical school" -- by inviting physicians to describe their varied career paths that each took to become a physician;
• that, as physicians, they will still be able to lead balanced lives and to participate in activities outside of medicine -- by inviting physicians with passions other than medicine to share their stories and coping mechanisms.

Please visit the Program in Liberal Medical Education website for further information on the Whole Patient/Whole Physician programs.

Every fall, students are invited to take part in the Women in Medicine & Science Mentoring Program that promotes connections between women medical students early in their educational and professional studies, with women physicians based at Brown affiliated hospitals and in the community.  Through informal meetings with their mentors, students can learn about a medical specialty, a field of health care delivery, or a specific career choice from the perspective of a woman physician.  This is also an opportunity for students to consider ways of shaping their career goals in medicine. The primary objectives of the program are to:

• link women students and physician role models
• offer students opportunities to meet with women medical faculty, residents, and fellows from different specialties and settings
• clarify personal and professional goals through individual and group mentoring
• advance the importance of networking

Students and mentors have considered a variety of themes including: residency training, blending family and career, medical specialty interests, women in academic medicine, careers integrating research and clinical responsibilities, women in leadership positions, specialized health care delivery (e.g. primary care, public health, women’s health, international health, rural medicine, etc.), and MD/PhD programs. For further information please visit the Women in Medicine & Science website.

Faculty who are board certified or board eligible in family medicine, internal medicine, and obstetrics are welcome to join the teaching services as attendings where they will provide clinical teaching to medical students, residents and fellows.  

Contacts

Inpatient Adult Medicine and Pediatrics: Margaret_Tryforos@brown.edu at (401) 729-2237.

Family Physicians interested in Maternal and Child Health and Obstetrics: Susanna_Magee_MD@brown.edu at (401) 729-2237

A program for hosting medical students in your office for one-on-one teaching. Open to Family Medicine physicians only.

Contacts

jane_shaw@brown.edu at (401) 729-2763 or David Anthony at david_anthony@brown.edu

A program open to Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Dermatology, Orthopedics, Social Work, and Psychology. Faculty members provide one-on-one and small-group teaching to medical students, family medicine residents, and psychiatry interns who are caring for a broad range of healthcare issues in a model family medicine teaching center in an underserved multi-ethnic community.  Faculty can be scheduled for half days any day of the week. 

Contact

Judy Walker at (401) 729-2961

Once a month from 5-9pm, a team of Brown students organizes a clinic through the Rhode Island Free Clinic.  Four patients are examined each session. There is a team of students (one 1st/2nd year and one 3rd/4th year) that work together to take the initial history and physical exam of each patient, present to an attending, and then the whole team decides on a treatment plan for the patient. Our patients are nearly all uninsured patients from underserved communities around Providence. The goal is to expand the clinic to two nights a month. The new clinic date will be the second Wednesday of every month. We are looking for preceptors to help us during these Wednesday clinics. In order to participate you will need to fill out a credentialing application with RIFC.  For further information and to sign up for Wednesday's clinic night, please visit the RI Free Clinic website.

RI Free Clinic

The Rhode Island Hospital Medical Simulation Center (RIHMSC) was established in 2002 and has grown steadily since its inception. The Department of Emergency Medicine faculty physicians and staff who direct the Center work to fulfill its mission of promoting excellence in clinical care, advancing patient safety initiatives, improving multidisciplinary team performance, and contributing to healthcare education and research through broad applications of high fidelity medical simulation.  The center is a valuable regional training resource for nurses, residents, fellows, attending physicians, medical students, respiratory therapists, pre-hospital providers and other healthcare personnel.

RIHMSC welcomes inquiries from those interested in educating healthcare providers.  Interested physicians who want to learn more about simulation-enhanced education and academics can receive appropriate training and technological support from our dedicated team of simulation specialists.  Formal and individualized reports of learner evaluations will be routinely generated for documentation of educational productivity.  Please visit the RIHMSC website for further information.

RIH Medical Simulation Center

The Program in Educational Faculty Development accepts proposals each summer in preparation for their schedule of workshops in each of the six Core educational areas, presentation and lecturing skills, small group facilitation, using technology in teaching, clinical teaching, teaching the challenging learner, and evaluation and effective feedback. 

Educational Faculty Development

The Summer Assistantship Program provides funding for the summer work of rising Year 2 medical students. More information can be found on the Student Affairs website.

Summer Assistantships