Medical Student Clerkships

The site of the UCSF-East Bay medical student clerkships, Alameda Health System (Highland Hospital) represents a truly diverse surgical environment for physicians at the beginning of their medical careers.  As a county teaching hospital without fellowships or specialty residencies, faculty, residents and medical students care for patients with a very wide range of surgical problems.  As the adult Level 1 trauma center for Oakland and the northern half of Alameda County, we routinely care for some of the most severely injured patients in the bay area.  Because we are on the Pacific Rim with a multicultural patient population, we also have the opportunity to see patients with very unusual or uncommon surgical problems. 

Medical students at all levels are an important part of the surgical team and make direct contributions to the health care of surgical patients. We are a core surgery rotation site for the third year surgery clerkship at UCSF. At the third year level, students have the opportunity to evaluate new admissions and patients in the surgery clinics.  They participate actively in patient rounds and in operations.  Third year students are encouraged to learn how to apply procedures such as suturing, vascular access, and placement of a variety of tubes and lines.  Even while on general surgery, night call provides experience with acute trauma patients since students are encouraged to actively participate in trauma activations and in the operations undertaken for trauma.

At the fourth year level, the student becomes the acting intern for a number of patients on his or her surgical service.  In addition to admitting histories and physical examinations, invasive procedures, participation in clinics and in the operating room, the fourth year students are asked to write daily progress notes, formulate core plans for patients, and initiate therapeutic interventions.