The clinical curriculum (OMS-III and OMS-IV years) will consist of mostly hospital and office-based training. All clinical adjunct faculty and clinical preceptors are approved by LMU-DCOM based on credentialing processes. The clinical curricula will reflect the mission of the college through planning and evaluation in the Curriculum Committee and the input, review, and approval of the Dean’s Council. Students must follow the policies and procedures outlined in the Clinical Rotations Manual for clinical rotations.
Educational activities consist of an online didactic component and a patient care component. The Office of Clinical Education & GME is composed of an experienced team including the Associate/Assistant Deans of Clinical Medicine, Director of Clinical Operations, Director of Clinical Credentialing and Contracting, Director of Preceptor Relations and Development to ensure day to day operations of the clinical medicine department, the recruitment and retention of clinical preceptors, and the execution of affiliation agreements with hospital sites . Student rotation evaluations, self-assessments, core site evaluations, and site visits ensure that consistent educational objectives are being met at each rotation site.
Core rotation site assignments are determined prior to the end of the OMS-II year through a schedule optimization program (“The Lottery”) based on individual student’s ranking of each core site. LMU-DCOM will provide assigned core rotations for the students to complete their OMS-III rotations. The student may elect to do Selective and Elective rotations elsewhere if the site/rotation is approved at least sixty (60) days in advance by the Office of Clinical Education. All rotations are in four (4) week blocks unless otherwise specified.
To be eligible to begin OMS-III clinical rotations, students must successfully complete the entire OMS-II curriculum. To be eligible to begin OMS-IV clinical rotations, students must successfully complete all components of the OMS-III curriculum.
Students are required to submit proof of health insurance, urine drug screen, influenza vaccine, and PPD test yearly. Additional requirements can be found in the Student Handbook and Clinical Rotations Manual.
Clinical training sites may require additional testing/documentation requirements not included in the LMU-DCOM Student Handbook or Clinical Rotations Manual. Students must adhere to and comply with all facility-specific orientation, training, and documentation requirements for each rotation site.
Curriculum Design
Students will complete twenty-one (21) clinical rotations throughout their OMS-III and OMS-IV years. Each clinical rotation is a four-week block, represented as a single (1) course on the student’s transcript. The OMS-III year is comprised of eleven (11) four-week rotation blocks.
The OMS-IV year is comprised of ten (10) four-week rotation blocks. Students have one (1) four-week block of independent study in OMS-III year and one (1) four-week block of independent study in OMS-IV year. Didactic activities provided by LMU-DCOM will be completed in addition to and concurrent with clinical experiences and are a required part of the curriculum. Didactic activities assigned by the Core Site and independent preceptors must also be completed by the student.
Core and Required Rotations
The OMS-III Core Rotations are Internal Medicine I, Internal Medicine II, General Surgery, Pediatrics, Family Medicine/Primary Care I, Family Medicine/Primary Care II, and the Core GME rotation. The OMS-III Required rotations are Psychiatry and Obstetrics & Gynecology. The OMS- IV Required rotations are Emergency Medicine and Rural/Underserved Outpatient Care. The OMS -IV curriculum is intended to build on the foundational experience provided in the OMS -III year. These experiences are in settings where more demands for independence can be expected of the senior medical student.
Selective Rotations
There is one Selective rotation during the OMS III year. The Surgical Selective can be fulfilled with one of the surgical subspecialties noted below:
- Cardiothoracic Surgery, Ear, Nose, & Throat, General Surgery, Gynecological Surgery, Neurological Surgery, Ophthalmology, Orthopedic Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Surgical Critical Care, Trauma Surgery, Urology, Vascular Surgery.
Electives
Elective rotation experiences are meant to offer the opportunity to gain insight and experience into the vast array of medical education experiences particular to each student’s interest. It may also be time used in exploring residency training opportunities. Students will have two (2) electives in the OMS-III year and eight (8) electives in the OMS-IV year. Students can do no more than six (6) Elective/Selective rotations in the same specialty. Up to two Elective rotations during the OMS-IV year may be done outside the United States with prior approval of the International Medicine Rotation Director. All approvals of international rotations are on a case-by-case basis and can rapidly change depending upon a variety of factors including but not limited to the global medical and political environment, weather/climate-related issues, and other natural disasters.