The primary goal of the ambulatory week is to provide interns and residents with exposure to a variety of outpatient settings where they can learn the fundamentals of primary care and the relevant outpatient issues associated with each of the medical specialties. Despite the traditional focus in internal medicine training on acutely ill patients in the inpatient setting, the majority of internal medicine and internal medicine subspecialty care is provided in the outpatient environment. The clinics are aware of each resident's assignment, and they create their schedules based on the assumption that the assigned house staff will be present.  Failure to attend assigned clinics without explicit permission from the chief residents and knowledge of the clinic staff will be viewed as unprofessional conduct, in that it negatively impacts patient care and shows disrespect to the faculty and other trainees in the clinic.

Excusable absences include the following:

• Absence because of illness: the house officer is expected to notify both a chief resident (typically the Chief-on-Call) AND the contact person for the clinic in question in the event of illness. If an absence is more than one day, a note from a physician may be required as documentation.
• Unanticipated Significant Events: in the event that the house officer is involved in the onset of labor, a car accident, natural disaster, the sudden death of an immediate family member or another sudden, incapacitating circumstance, a chief resident (typically the Chief-on-Call).