Clerkship Years 3 and 4
Clinical Education

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.

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
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.
Clerkships
Required Clerkship Rotations & 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, and Children's Hospital of Michigan - Detroit 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.
Regional Campus Coordinators
Ascension St. John - Detroit
Diane Parker
Student Coordinator
Email: diane.parker@ascension.org
MyMichigan Medical Center Midland
Angel Vanskike
Clerkship Assistant
Phone: 989-794-5150
Email: angel.vanskike2@mymichigan.org
Spectrum Health Lakeland – St. Joseph
Tonya Parish
Coordinator
Phone: 269-982-4941
Email: tonya.parish@spectrumhealth.org
STEVEN VANCE
ASSOC DEAN CLINICAL EDUCATION
Medicine, College of
JULIET NICHOLLS
MGR/DISTRIBUTED CLINICAL ED/CMED
Medicine, College of
TARA SCHULTZ
PRGM ASST/DISTRIBUTED CLIN ED/CMED
Medicine, College of