Clerkship Years 3 and 4

Clinical education

A young woman in a white lab coat holds a paper in one of her hands while she speaks to a woman sitting on an examination table.

Years three and four represent the logical extension of student learning into the clinical environment. The curriculum includes a longitudinal integrated clerkship in primary care, which the College of Medicine calls the Comprehensive Clinical Clerkship (CCC). Focused in rural or urban underserved areas of Michigan and beyond, students are provided a comprehensive experience in the context of community.

Longitudinal care of patients is a focus, with a goal for students to understand the challenges patients face with access to care. Aligned with our mission, this unique experience will equip students with the knowledge and skills necessary to address the public health challenges facing Michigan.

The remainder of year three is spent completing a series of five required inpatient rotations in hospital medicine, surgery, pediatrics, psychiatry, and obstetrics/gynecology. In addition, Year three students are offered a four-week elective.

Year four of the curriculum offers required four-week rotations in emergency medicine, a sub-internship in either medicine or surgery, and 28 weeks of elective rotations.

A young woman in a shite lab coat smiles as she uses a stethoscope to examine a baby being held by another woman.

At the College of Medicine, we place great emphasis on experiential learning. Over the course of the third and fourth years, students will have the opportunity to train using the latest medical simulation technologies at two highly-advanced CMU simulation facilities. Students at our branch campuses have additional access to simulation centers at these institutions.

CMU participates in the AAMC Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) network, allowing our students to complete up to 12 weeks of "away" elective clerkships at sites across the United States. Students may also pursue international learning opportunities through CMU’s Office of Study Abroad.

Comprehensive Community Clerkship

A woman in a white lab coat points out anatomy on a screen to a younger woman in a white lab coat. The Comprehensive Community Clerkship (CCC) is a unique longitudinal integrated clerkship that occurs in the third year of the medical school curriculum. The goal of the CCC is to immerse students in a primary care experience to learn the values of comprehensive patient-centered medical care in the context of a community.

The medical students are placed in primary care practices for a clinical immersion experience in a rural or urban community, working 2 ½ days per week with primary care provider (a family or internal medicine physician) where they will share in the provision of care of both acute and chronic conditions over the course of the clerkship. Students also have longitudinal exposure to community health resources and other medical and surgical specialty experiences, including pediatrics, obstetrics, and emergency medicine.

Students follow patients that they have seen in the primary physician’s practice as they are referred to other specialists for further care. Students learn the course of a patient’s illness and appreciate the context in which the patient lives with his or her illness. Students learn about population health, doing a quality improvement project in the primary physician’s practice.

Videoconference technology connects the students weekly for small group sessions. Students live in and experience the communities to which they are assigned across Michigan and Northern Ohio. These partnerships with hospitals and clinics are vital to CMU College of Medicine’s mission to educate physicians to provide medical care for rural and underserved populations.

CCC WEEKLY SCHEDULE EXAMPLE

Clerkships

Required clerkship rotations and electives

Hospital-based clerkship locations

Covenant HealthCare - Saginaw
Ascension St. Mary's Hospital - Saginaw
Ascension St. John Hospital - Detroit
MidMichigan Health - Midland and Spectrum Health Lakeland Hospital - St. Joseph

In addition, affiliate sites at McLaren Lapeer Region - Lapeer, St. Mary Mercy - Livonia, Children's Hospital of Michigan - Detroit and Ascension Genesys Hospital- Grand Blanc offer inpatient clerkship opportunities.

Year 3 required clerkships include:

General Surgery (4 weeks).
Obstetrics and Gynecology (4 weeks).
Psychiatry (4 weeks).
Hospital Medicine (4 weeks).
Pediatrics (4 weeks).

Year 4 required clerkships include:

Emergency Medicine (4 weeks).
Medicine Sub-Internship (4 weeks) OR Surgery Sub-Internship (four weeks).

Students will also be required to at least 28 weeks of elective clerkships. These can be completed at any of our clinical sites. In addition, up to 12 weeks of "away" electives can count toward graduation requirements.

The College of Medicine curriculum is focused on educating and training medical students to follow generalist specialty choices aligned to our mission. It also is designed to reinforce skills in self-study, self-reflection, team-based medical practice and lifelong learning so essential to successful medical practice in the future.