The entire spectrum of patients with ailments in the field of internal medicine are examined at the teaching clinic. The teaching clinic is very important for the clinical education and training of medical students. The students learn the practice of how to approach and communicate with patients in the real clinical setting. At the same time, the students learn how to form a holistic view of human symptoms and signs of ailments in the field of internal medicine, which examinations are appropriate and what treatment alternatives are possible and available.
If your appointment is at the teaching clinic, we sincerely hope that you look positively at the invitation. Your visit will be exceptionally highly valued, since it will help to guide the learning and teaching of physicians to come.
But if decide to decline attendance at the teaching clinic, this will not affect your access to treatment in any way.
Our clinic resides in the Turku University Hospital under the Internal Medicine Outpatient Clinic of Operational division: Medicine.
What happens at the Teaching Clinic?
The students at the Teaching Clinic are Candidates of Medicine. With the written consent given by the patient, each student reads carefully the patient’s history in advance of the patient’s arrival at the Teaching Clinic.
The patient is first interviewed and examined carefully by the student, which will take 30–45 minutes. After this, the patient’s history, current state and findings will be discussed in detail with the clinic specialist, the nurse in charge, the student group (6–8 students) and the patient.
The duration of the visit is 60 minutes. During this time the following is covered:
The joint meeting at the Teaching Clinic gives the patient a unique opportunity to ask and to learn about his/her illness and how it is treated. The entire duration of a visit at the Teaching Clinic is about 3 hours, and a part of this time will be waiting time.
Visit to the outpatient clinic
You will receive an invitation by phone or letter to attend at the outpatient clinic. The invitation includes:
- time of the appointment
- information about any laboratory or imaging studies needed before the appointment
- instruction on how you are to prepare yourself for the studies
- form to be filled in at home and taken along to the appointment
-
biobank consent form.
Please make your own reservations for the laboratory tests (unless there are other instructions in the invitation letter). You can change or cancel your appointment by calling the department secretary.
When attending the outpatient clinic you will first be received by a nurse. Please reserve enough time for the entire visit.
Please take to the appointment with you a list of your medication and any previous test results related to the condition for which you have your appointment. Please fill in carefully all the forms which you receive with the invitation letter before coming to you appointment. When you have arrived at the clinic, please inform the department secretary that you have come.