University of Illinois at Rockford - College of Medicine

Dixon offers a rural family medicine clerkship to fourth-year residency students from LCME-accredited medical schools and from selected WHO-affiliated international medical schools. Under its affiliation with the University of Illinois College of Medicine, the faculty of the Dixon Rural Training Track provides supervision for this four-week experience. Students obtain an overview of family medicine as it is practiced in a smaller hospital in a rural setting, and are primarily assigned to a teaching family medicine physician of their choosing. Students become involved in patient care activities in both the outpatient family medicine office and with inpatients at Katherine Shaw Bethea Hospital in Dixon. The clerkship may be tailored to the specific needs and interests of the student.

The Dixon RTT fourth-year clerkship is intended to provide experience in or exposure to:

• Concepts of screening, prevention and health maintenance.
• Managing common problems in ambulatory family medicine.
• Methods and goals of patient education.
• The practice of family medicine outside of the office.
• Common office procedures and clinical skills.
• Principles and practice of continuing care.
• Ability to integrate patient care with knowledge of the natural history of health and disease.
• An appreciation of the special strengths and challenges of family medicine as practiced in a rural setting.