Medical Education

Curriculum
Block III - Years III & IV - Overview

Block III, which extends through years three and four of the medical curriculum, comprises weeks of required and elective clerkships; required clerkships span 56 weeks, while elective clerkships span 20 weeks. Students are required to attend a week-long orientation scheduled in each community prior to the commencement of clerkships. Clerkships are physician-supervised learning experiences in which students work with patients at clinical health care sites. The required clerkships in family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology, surgery, and psychiatry involve both hospital-based and ambulatory care sites, including geriatric centers, physicians' offices, out-patient clinics, and patients' homes. Advanced clerkships in internal medicine and surgery follow the specialty clerkships. Concurrent with the clerkships, all students are required to participate in the Core Competency experience that provides students with structured learning seminars on core, interdisciplinary topics important to the care and health management of patients. These topics include the virtuous physician (ethics and professionalism), critical analysis of the medical literature, palliative care, health disparities, therapeutics, and occupational medicine.

All required Block III clerkships are completed away from the East Lansing Campus at one of the six community-based program sites. Students are assigned to a community at which they commence their clinical studies during the summer of their third year. Located throughout Michigan, the six community campuses are Flint , Grand Rapids , Kalamazoo, Lansing , Saginaw , and the Upper Peninsula.

As a community-based medical school, the College of Human Medicine is uniquely positioned to provide students with comprehensive training in clinical settings that most closely parallel the environment in which many physicians practice. Each community program is aligned with area hospitals and outpatient facilities that join Michigan State University in creating a rich educational environment for students. All community programs offer electives in both specialty and subspecialty areas. Research opportunities are also available.

At the conclusion of the required clerkships, students take elective clerkships that can include advanced elective experiences; international elective clerkships, such as studying comparative medicine in third world countries; and elective options that provide students with opportunities to explore career choices more fully. Electives offered at any of the six community campuses are available to all College of Human Medicine students.