Medical Student Rotations

Our residency program offers both acting internships and outpatient ambulatory electives to fourth year medical students. There is also a specific sports medicine elective through our sports medicine department.

We accept an acting intern on our inpatient family medicine service during every month of the year. Our family medicine service provides experience in care of acute adult medical problems as well as care of obstetrical patients and newborn babies.

Acting interns assume responsibility for the initial evaluation and ongoing management of their patients, thus functioning at the level of a first year resident. Our acting interns carry 3 to 4 patients on average and supervision is provided by both the senior family medicine resident and the service attendings.

Experiences Include

• Morning report, during which patient cases are discussed, challenging students' and residents' clinical reasoning and management skills
• Daily teaching rounds run by the senior resident
• Participation in daily interdisciplinary care rounds (includes nursing, nutrition, PT/OT, social work)
• Weekly Wednesday Teaching didactic conferences at the Family Medicine Center or the simulation center
• Weekly radiology rounds
• One week of night float
• During a students' acting internship, call is two weekend 12-hour calls throughout the month. There is no overnight call.

Please access the Acting Internship application through VSLO.

Our fourth year outpatient elective is meant to provide students with an in-depth experience in primary care at both our Portland and Falmouth clinics. At our family medicine centers, students see their own patients every 45 minutes, which allows time to see the patient and review the case with a preceptor. Most patients seen will be presenting with acute complaints. Patient care time is usually 7-8 half-day sessions per week. Students may request an optional area of focus for their elective, including integrative medicine, sports medicine, or maternal-child health.

Experiences Include

• Daily afternoon report at the Family Medicine Center
• Wednesdays: Teaching didactic conferences at the MaineHealth Primary Care - Family Medicine - Portland and the Simulation Center
• During a students' ambulatory elective, there is no call.
• Optional research project

Please apply through VSAS.

Our sports medicine department is exceptional and offers a 1-month elective specifically geared towards the care of patients with orthopedic complaints.

Experiences Include:

• Participation in high school and collegiate training rooms
• Sports medicine clinics at family medicine and Orthopedic Associates, a large orthopedic practice
• Monday Morning talks, covering the core curriculum, and Thursday teaching sessions
• Various local events or activities depending on time of year (Maine Marathon, AHL hockey games, high school football games, etc.)

Please apply through VSAS.

This elective exposes students to the practice of caring for the most underserved and vulnerable people in our community—individuals experiencing homelessness. Learners spend the month at the MaineHealth Maine Medical Center- Preble Street Learning Collaborative (PSLC). The PSLC provides low-barrier medical, psychiatric, dental, and case management services to all-comers and is co-located near many of the city’s social services including the shelters and soup kitchen.

Experiences include:

• An introductory period called “Relationship Before Role” where students tour the neighborhood and work closely with representatives of local organizations to gain a deeper knowledge of the community’s assets and needs
• Providing direct patient care as full active members of the PSLC inter-professional team
• Following patients as they traverse different venues of care, from clinics to the hospital to the street
• Contribute to community health work as dictated by local need
• Independent study of modules on homelessness
• Writing a brief final reflection piece

Students will not be expected to be “on call” during their Caring for Patients Experiencing Homelessness rotation. This rotation is only available to Tufts University School of Medicine students.

Visiting Student Diversity Scholarship Program

MHMMC’s Department of Medical Education offers eight $500 scholarship awards per academic year for those applying to advanced electives with identities and backgrounds that are considered underrepresented in medicine.