Core clerkship in internal medicine at a rural community hospital in Israel.

An increase in the number of medical students in Israel has resulted in a relative shortage of clinical teaching sites, a problem being faced in many jurisdictions around the world. It has been shown that the rural setting is adequate for teaching internal medicine. Yoseftal Hospital (YH), a rural community hospital with 25 beds for medicine was chosen as a site for the internal medicine core clerkship. The hospital is located in a remote town of 40 000 inhabitants, 230 km from the closest tertiary medical center. Other sites were at the major university teaching hospital.