Curriculum Description

Application Information

The Keck School of Medicine has three-phase, Physician-Citizen-Scholar Curriculum.

  • Pre-Clerkship: Scientific and Clinical Foundations
  • Clerkship: Clinical Immersion
  • Post-Clerkship: Individuation and Transformation

The Physician-Citizen-Scholar Curriculum emphasizes active learning strategies, early clinical immersion, and a learning environment that fosters the wellbeing and professional development of students.

  • Courses:

    The first semester of Year 1 is comprised of Introduction to Medical Sciences (IMS), a 19-week introductory course which provides students with the fundamental knowledge necessary for the integrated study of the basic and clinical sciences (e.g., biochemistry, genetics, immunology, physiology, microbiology, histology, and gross anatomy). IMS is divided into four sections: IMS I, II, III and IV, providing a transition from an understanding of normal cellular structures and processes to the organization of the human body and the general principles of disease. The overarching goal for these sections is to provide a foundation for comprehending the disease-specific content required to achieve the objectives in subsequent pre-clerkship courses.

    IMS is followed by courses focused on systems that include cardiovascular, respiratory, renal, gastrointestinal/liver, reproduction, neuroscience, musculoskeletal, and endocrinology. The Integrated Case Series (ICS) culminates the third semester of the pre-clerkship phase by applying a model of clinical reasoning to clinical cases to integrate the basic and clinical science presented in the preceding courses and to explore the multi-organ effects of disease processes. ICS reinforces the students’ development of diagnostic reasoning skills, appropriate use of medical information resources, effective self-directed learning skills, and interpersonal and group communication skills.

    Longitudinal Courses:

    Introduction to Clinical Medicine

    Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) uses a teach-practice-assess model for students to gain competency in foundational clinical skills. Students are placed in groups of eight students with a dedicated faculty instructor. Starting the first week of medical school, Keck School students begin to learn and practice clinical skills with standardized patients in their ICM groups with their faculty instructor, to practice those skills in supervised interactions with hospitalized or ambulatory patients, and to be assessed on standardized patients in the state-of-the-art Clinical Skills Education and Evaluation Center.

    Health Justice and Systems of Care

    The Health Justice and Systems of Care (HJSC) course combines concepts of social justice with health systems science and trains students to look beyond diagnosing a patient’s illness to more deeply understanding the social determinants of health and the political, economic, racial, and social structures that impact health and contribute to health inequities at an individual, health-care system, and societal level. A required service-learning activity is the experiential component of the HJSC pre-clerkship curriculum. HJSC is delivered throughout all three semesters of the pre-clerkship phase.

    Empowerment Through Professional Identity Cultivation

    Empowerment Through Professional Identity Cultivation (EPIC) is a year-long, pre-clerkship phase course spanning semesters 1 and 2 that introduces students to foundational concepts in professional identity formation to guide and support them in ultimately becoming resilient and competent physicians. Students are placed in learning communities comprised of three Introduction to Clinical Medicine (ICM) groups (24 students/group). Each semester focuses on a different dimension of the students’ evolving professional identity with semester 1 focusing on the transition to medical school and semester 2 focusing on being a successful medical student. Coursework is designed to help students gain skills and competence in the areas of communication, ethical judgment, self-awareness and reflection, self-care and personal growth, professionalism, and lifelong learning.

  • Transition to Clinical Practice

    Transition to Clinical Practice is a one-week course at the beginning of the clerkship phase designed to prepare students for the transition from predominantly classroom-based instruction to practical learning while on clinical clerkships. The course provides learning experiences in preparing for and participating on rounds and enables students to practice their case presentation skills. In addition, the course provides sessions on optimizing the learning environment, patient safety, and personal resilience and well-being. Skills-based sessions on the ophthalmologic examination, radiology, electrocardiogram (EKG) interpretation, the presenting and documenting of clinical encounters, handoffs, point-of-care ultrasound, managing airways, and achieving compliance with different types of infection prevention requirements are included. The course culminates with students donning their white coats and reciting the same Keck School Oath recited at their White Coat Ceremony at the outset of medical school to reinforce their commitment to professional principles as they transition to their new roles as student physicians on health-care teams.

    Required Clerkships

    There are seven required clerkships in the clerkship phase and three required courses: Procedural Skills and Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS), Intersession, and the HJSC Seminar. All required clerkships provide comparable experiences across clinical sites and all are graded Honors, High Pass, Pass, or Fail.

     

    Family Medicine – 6 weeks

    The Family Medicine Clerkship provides students with opportunities for medical students to explore the breadth of family medicine and understand the role of a family physician. Students care for patients across the full spectrum of ages within a context of providing continuity of care and personal patient-physician relationships focused on integrated care. The clerkship offers students a close, collegial relationship with their preceptors as they address preventive care, acute and chronic illness, and mental health in the outpatient setting.

     

    General Surgery – 6 weeks

    The General Surgery Clerkship provides students with experiences in caring for patients with common general surgery diagnoses and traumatic injuries. These patients range in age from infants to geriatric patients. All student activities revolve around perioperative care. Students participate in the operating room and are active in completing surgical consults, seeing patients in the clinic, and rounding daily with their inpatient teams. Students spend three weeks on the acute care service (trauma surgery) and three weeks on a general surgery service.

     

    Internal Medicine – 6 weeks

    The Internal Medicine Clerkship provides students with a comprehensive experience as integrated members of an inpatient general medicine ward team under the supervision of hospital medicine physicians. The clerkship exposes students to a diverse patient population with a wide range of medical conditions and students become familiar with the delivery of inpatient internal medicine care and transitions of care from admission to discharge and across in-hospital units. While a member of the medical team, students gain experience managing complex medical conditions, interacting with consulting services, and developing specific disposition plans for individual patient needs.

     

    Neurology – 4 weeks

    The Neurology Clerkship provides students with both inpatient and outpatient experiences in caring for adult and pediatric patients that have damage to the nervous system of varying types and degrees. Students learn to appreciate that neurological disorders often are insidious in onset with gradual deterioration over time and that neurologic diseases may impair physical functioning and/or can alter the core of what defines individuals as a person, (i.e., cognition, memory, and personality). Students learn how to evaluate and treat these patients and their families. Furthermore, because many patients are followed for extended periods of time, students learn how neurologic diseases affect, and may restrict, one’s lifestyle choices, family interactions, work, school, living situations, and levels of activity.

     

    Obstetrics and Gynecology – 6 weeks

    The Obstetrics and Gynecology Clerkship provides students the opportunity to care for women in all stages of life, from adolescence through and beyond menopause. Students experience a variety of obstetrical and gynecological conditions in both outpatient and inpatient settings. Students gain an understanding of the primary care mission within obstetrics and gynecology in the outpatient segment, and the inpatient experience provides an exposure to the dynamic aspects of birth, obstetric and gynecologic surgeries, and emergencies.

     

    Pediatrics – 6 weeks

    The Pediatric Clerkship provides students with experiences that address issues unique to newborns, infants, children, and adolescents by focusing on the health and well-being of the developing human, emphasizing growth and development, principles of health supervision, and recognition and treatment of common health problems. The clerkship is structured as three weeks of inpatient and three weeks of outpatient experiences and students gain experience in family-centered rounds. The Clerkship emphasizes the role of the pediatrician in prevention of disease and injury; the importance of collaboration between the pediatrician, other health professions, and the family; and the importance of the interaction of family, community, and society to support the complete health of the pediatric patient.

     

    Psychiatry – 6 weeks

    The Psychiatry Clerkship provides students with experiences in the care of patients with psychiatric issues in a variety of treatment settings: inpatient wards, the psychiatric emergency room, outpatient clinics, and hospital-based consultation services. Students are exposed to pathology ranging from uncomplicated depression and anxiety disorders to severely decompensated psychotic disorders. Students learn about the BioPsychoSocial model and a holistic approach to treatment of mental illness including the use of both psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, and the importance of individualized social interventions. The integration of psychiatry into the broader field of medicine is emphasized, as is the use of bioethical concepts in the treatment of all patients.

     

     

    Procedural Skills and Point of Care Ultrasound (POCUS) – 2 weeks

    The Procedural Skills and POCUS Course is a two-week required course delivered adjacent to the four-week neurology clerkship and is designed to equip medical students with fundamental procedural skills and a foundational understanding of POCUS. The course is hybrid in structure, with both in-person and remote/asynchronous coursework within the rotation. Students gain hands-on practice in select procedural skills including nasogastric tube insertion, foley catheter insertion, intravenous catheter insertion, venipuncture, and splinting & fracture immobilization. Additionally, students get POCUS skill training for both image acquisition and interpretation for multiple clinical applications including cardiac, lung, and abdominal protocols.

     

    Intersession – 1 week

    The Intersession course is delivered midway through the clerkship phase enabling students to pause, reflect, and consolidate the many and varied clinical and educational experiences in which they participate during clinical rotations. Through a series of didactics and workshops, students hone their clinical reasoning, acquire new procedural and communication skills, address challenging experiences encountered in clinical care, and learn about important clinical and professional development topics to prepare for the transition to the post-clerkship phase of their training.

     

    HJSC Seminar – 2 weeks

    The HJSC Seminar is delivered at the end of the clerkship phase and covers the overarching domains of advocacy for health justice, social determinants of health, health systems and structures, high-value care, patient safety and quality improvement, and clinical informatics and health information technology. This classroom-based experience includes lectures, panel discussions, small-group discussions and problem-solving sessions. The HJSC seminar allows students to consolidate the information from the pre-clerkship phase components of the HJSC course and integrate it with their clinical experiences to prepare them for future practice.

     

    Track Mentor Program

    The Track Mentor Program supports the continued professional development of students during the clerkship phase and recaptures the learning community concept to which students were exposed during the pre-clerkship phase. Each clerkship-track student-cohort group meets with their assigned mentor (who is not involved in the evaluation process) six to seven times during the clerkship phase. Senior students join each track cohort meeting as near-peer mentors. The Track Mentor program provides a safe space for facilitated discussions and ongoing support to students to explore professional identity; ethical, professional and cultural challenges; student health and well-being; and collaboration and team dynamics. Though this is not a ‘graded course,’ it is a required curricular activity.

  • Internal Medicine Sub-Internship – 4 weeks

    The Internal Medicine Sub-Internship enables students to work directly with hospital medicine physicians and internal medicine residents in the provision of inpatient internal medicine at the level of a sub-intern. Students are integral members and significant contributors to the delivery of patient care. They assume an advanced level of responsibility for proposing and implementing diagnostic, treatment, and disposition plans for their assigned patients and for communication and coordination with the patient and family and interprofessional team members.

    Senior Seminar – 2 weeks

    All students must complete one two-week Senior Seminar elective in the post-clerkship phase. Senior Seminar topics include Biomedical Research, Health Policy & Advocacy, Medical Education, Narrative Medicine, Primary Care & Community Engagement, Digital Health, Global Health, Business of Medicine, and Patient Safety and Quality Improvement. Each Senior Seminar is led by faculty with expertise in the area and the courses provide medical students an opportunity for in-depth exploration of an area of personal interest and to position them to pursue scholarship in that area if desired.

    Transition to Residency (TTR) – 2 weeks

    The Transition to Residency (TTR) course is a two-week required course for senior medical students that is delivered after Match Day. The goal of the course is to provide students with the knowledge, skills, and mental preparedness necessary for them to successfully meet the clinical responsibilities and other professional expectations on day one of internship and during the early portions of their first year of residency training. Instructional strategies include large and small group didactics, individual and team-based simulation, procedural skills training and other hands-on clinical skills workshops. Many instructors from a wide array of medical specialties and non-medical disciplines are involved in the delivery of the course, highlighting the integrated nature of medicine.

    Electives – 40 weeks

    Students are required to complete a minimum of 40 weeks of electives in the clerkship and post-clerkship phases, 30 weeks of which must be in clinical electives. Students must take one Emergency Medicine (three or four weeks) or a Critical Care Elective (four weeks). Twelve weeks of electives must be from a list of Core Clinical Electives. Core Clinical Electives are only offered at Keck School primary affiliates. A maximum of 12 weeks of away rotations or rotations of similar content within the Keck School course catalog can be taken for graduation credit. Students may complete research electives (maximum of eight weeks credit). They also may take approved electives at the Keck School, other medical schools, or other medical sites in the U.S. or abroad.

    Scholarly Project

    At the Keck School all students are required to complete a Scholarly Project (SP) as a graduation requirement. The aim of the SP is to expose students to the process of scientific inquiry, teaching them how to formulate an answerable question and implement the requisite methodology in seeking appropriate answers. Each student undertakes a faculty mentored research project in a discipline of their choice. The SP requirement is supported by the longitudinal Scientific Method and Research Curriculum, which begins in the pre-clerkship phase and includes didactic instruction and small-group workshops on topics such as developing research questions and hypotheses, study design, and biostatistics. Students must attend the required curricular sessions, complete Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) training, and complete a mentored research project that meets the requirements of the SP to fulfill the requirement. The SP requirement can be fulfilled at any time during the four years of medical school.

    Humanities, Ethics, Art, and Law (HEAL) Curriculum Thread

    The Humanities, Ethics, Art, and Law (HEAL) curriculum is a curricular thread integrated into a variety of courses throughout the four years of medical school including ICM, EPIC, required clerkships, Intersession and post-clerkship electives. The curriculum begins in Year 1 in EPIC with collaborative discourse about ethical problems to help students learn to identify, analyze, and resolve clinical ethical problems. The clerkship phase includes ethics education by clinical role models as an integral part of select clerkships and sessions during Intersession that focus on the humanities, arts, and ethics. The post-clerkship phase includes the Senior Seminar on narrative medicine and other related electives.