Winter Study Healthcare Internships

Experience in a clinical environment is essential to exploring the health professions. Through this experiential learning course, students will clarify their understanding of the rewards and challenges of medicine, veterinary medicine, dentistry, allied health professions, or public health. Students will participate in a shadowing internship through an independent placement in their location of choice. Students will observe clinical interactions and learn about healthcare delivery systems. Students will be introduced to key concepts related to patient interviewing and history taking, diagnosis, and medical decision-making. Students will also be introduced to core concepts of population health and expand their perspectives on the individual clinical interactions that they observe. Students will be encouraged to reflect on their healthcare experiences with a dual focus: from the perspective of the individual provider-patient relationship and within a systems-level context. Weekly didactic sessions will focus on the experiences and/or area of expertise of healthcare professionals in the Berkshires and/or nationally. These sessions will now be offered virtually so that on-site and off-site students can attend as well as to facilitate a broad range of speakers. By the end of the course, students will demonstrate an understanding of the fundamentals of patient-provider interactions and key factors affecting the health of individuals and communities. A final reflective paper is required.