Academics

Curriculum

Year-1 Curriculum

Students receive early exposure to patients through Introduction to Clinical Medicine. You will also be trained through interdisciplinary courses in Human Structure; Molecular Basis of Medicine; Cells and Tissue Organ Systems; and Principles of Disease. Social and Ethical Issues in Medicine, Human Development, and Population Medicine courses are also required in Year 1.Your classroom training features a combination of traditional lectures with small-group sessions, computerized instruction, and basic science concepts emphasized with clinical case corollaries and team learning sessions. The Weekend Intervention Program (WIP) experience is a valuable part of Introduction to Clinical Medicine. This is a hands-on residential education program of intervention for persons involved with drugs or alcohol. Every student must attend one WIP program before the end of Year 2.

All courses in Year 1 will be graded Pass/Fail with a final percent score as shown in the following:

Year-1 Courses

Year-2 Curriculum

All courses in Year 2 will be graded Pass/Fail with a final percent score. Year 2 will be divided into two academic grading periods: Medical Systems Term I (Aug.-Dec.), and Medical Systems Term II (Jan.-May). You will receive one grade for each term, comprised of course grades and a comprehensive exam as follows:

Year-2 Courses

Year-3 Curriculum

Year 3 begins in late July or early August and lasts 12 months. The number of hours per week that students are in training varies with each clinical rotation. They will receive three weeks of vacation during the year. During clinical rotations, the educational objectives are to:

• Establish rapport with patients and their families and co-workers.
  Learn to help patients and their families feel relaxed, open, willing to share information, and cooperate. Show empathy and concern for the patient and his or her family; communicate clearly and concisely; cooperate with coworkers by taking night call, attending rounds, and participating in conferences and seminars; complete work in a timely manner; recognize limitations in your knowledge and skills; seek help when necessary; and be on time.
• Obtain a complete medical history using the appropriate departmental format.
  Be sure to elicit all relevant patient data including major systems, growth and development, intellectual development, psychological aspects, spiritual aspects, and social aspects; obtain a thorough family history; explore all symptoms; and separate relevant and irrelevant information. Reports should be logical, clear, concise, complete, and organized.
• Perform a complete physical exam using the appropriate departmental format.
  Remember to identify all pertinent findings; pursue abnormal findings; use inspection, percussion, palpation, and auscultation, and know the range of normal variation of physical findings. Reports should be logical, clear, concise, complete, and organized.
• Recommend appropriate diagnostic studies.
  You should show an understanding of test sensitivity, specificity, reliability, accuracy, utility, risks, and the expected value of information. Develop diagnostic hypotheses; be able to determine the probability of findings; have diagnostic plans for negative values, and select tests in a cost-effective manner.
• Interpret diagnostic studies.
  Your interpretations should be appropriate and logical. You should also learn to understand normal, abnormal, test discrimination, regression toward the mean, and the capabilities and limitations of diagnostic findings, and make appropriate judgments from conflicting results.
• Synthesize data from the medical history, physical exam, and diagnostic studies.
  You should be able to identify key uncertainties and sources of evidence that may clarify them; delineate relationships between data; recognize clusters of signs and symptoms, and understand that the relations between clinical signs and symptoms and disease are not the same in every patient.
• Develop a differential diagnosis.
  Your differential diagnosis should be logical, complete, and appropriate. Be sure to select the most discriminating or key clinical findings; develop a list of diseases associated with these findings; determine the relative likelihood of each disease; rule out alternative diagnostic possibilities; correlate clinical findings with pathologic processes; refer to the medical literature, and use all available data.
• Develop management plans.
  Learn to prioritize treatment modalities; evaluate treatment efficacy and make value judgments; understand principles of therapy and rehabilitation, risks, side effects, interactions between drugs and that the effect of any treatment is uncertain in a given patient; suggest monitoring procedures; plan for long-term follow-up and rehabilitation; include patient education and disease prevention in management plans; be aware of social agencies and community health care programs; and write legible daily progress notes on all problems in the medical record addressing pertinent positive and negative laboratory values using the appropriate departmental format.

Year-3 Clerkships

Year-4 Curriculum

Year 4 begins in August and lasts 10 months. During this period, students may choose two months for vacation and visiting potential residency program sites. During the remaining eight months, the required and elective rotations will be completed.

Year-4 Clerkships & Electives

Early in Year 4 students must participate in an O.S.C.E. Students are required to arrange their schedule to be in town during August or September. Much of Year 4 is devoted to electives. None of these electives may be "essentially identical," and only two may be extramural. Students may satisfy one of the months by completing two 2-week experiences.

Students will choose an electives program after consulting with an advisor and receiving his or her approval. Electives must be chosen from at least three different departments, with at least one being a Junior Internship in a primary care department (Family Medicine, Medicine, or Pediatrics).

Conduct and Dress Code for Clinical Activities

A neat, clean personal appearance promotes effective, productive interaction between you and your patients and professional staff. Please be sensitive to the expectations for personal appearance and appropriate behavior placed upon you as a medical student. You are responsible to respect your professional obligations to your patients, institutions, and the profession of medicine.

Electives

The Biennium I (B-I) Electives program is one of the unique features of Boonshoft SOM. Students are required to complete six weeks of electives before the end of Year 2. During electives, you are immersed in a single course relevant to your development as a physician.

The electives available are not intended to duplicate nor replace the core or required courses, but to supplement and complement the required curriculum. Content varies widely among electives. Some electives expand the basic science offering; others offer early exposure to clinical medicine; still others address psychosocial or value issues.

Differences in content require different educational approaches. In some electives, you may be paired with a faculty preceptor, and follow the physician as he/she makes the usual daily rounds. Other electives involve classroom activities — usually in relatively small groups — accompanied by reading assignments or other out-of-class responsibilities. Although the style of the electives program is intended to provide some respite from the core periods, the program is an integral part of the medical school curriculum. Therefore, you will be engaged in educational activities full-time for the entire elective period.

We are confident you will sample a wide variety of electives to promote your development as a well-rounded physician. Your professional development is so important that the electives program offers you the opportunity to design your own educational experience through the "student-initiated electives" option. Many students have designed research projects or clinical preceptorships that match their individual interests.

Biennium I students are required to take and receive a passing grade for six weeks of elective time. The grading system employed for B-I electives will consist of Pass/No Record.

Biennium I Electives

Biennium I Electives are listed in the electives catalog. You will rank order your preferences.

• Your name is given a random numerical assignment by computer scrambling, and priority for elective enrollment is determined accordingly.
  
  
• You may design your own electives to meet specific needs or special opportunities. Student Initiated Elective proposals must be submitted to the Biennium I Subcommittee of the Faculty Curriculum Committee for approval. See the deadline dates in the B-I Electives Catalog.

During the first Biennium, you may be permitted to enroll for elective credit in courses occurring during core time if you have:

• a course percent average of 75 percent,
  
  
• a satisfactory remediation record, and
  
  
• no schedule conflict between the course taken for elective credit and your schedule of core courses.

Student Initiated Biennium I Electives

You may design your own elective experiences around a special medical interest, subject to departmental sponsorship and the routine approval process. You (or your student group, if applicable) are encouraged to consult the B-I Electives Catalog before preparing a proposal. Submit your written proposal to the Subcommittee using the format below. (See deadline dates in the B-I Electives Catalog.)

Before granting final approval of student-initiated electives, the subcommittee must receive forms from the faculty preceptor and from the chair of an appropriate department indicating approval and commitment. Students will be notified of approved Student Initiated Electives. Off campus electives in which the preceptor/evaluator is a relative of the student will not be approved.

Scheduling

Entering Students

You are automatically registered by the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions with the university registrar each quarter. To complete your registration:

• The School of Medicine must have all transcripts on file.
  
• For each subsequent quarter, you must clear any "holds" — such as the library, parking services, student loans, or the bursar — through the appropriate university division before you can be registered.

Tuition statements are mailed to your current address each quarter. For smooth processing, remember:

• Payments are due by the dates specified on the statement.
  
• A $100 fee is charged for late payment.
  
• If you have loans and take a leave of absence, you should contact the director of financial aid as soon as the leave is approved.

Year-3 Clerkships

In February of Year 2, you will meet with members of the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions to discuss Year 3 scheduling procedures. The third year consists of:

• One six-month A track, which includes three clerkships of two months each in Surgery, Pediatrics, and Women's Health; and
  
• One six-month B track, which includes a three-month Internal Medicine rotation, and six weeks each of Family Medicine and Psychiatry.

All students take the same clerkships in Year 3, including family medicine, pediatrics, internal medicine, women's health, surgery, and psychiatry. The sequence is different depending upon the track you're assigned. Through a process called the "Great Divide," you choose or are assigned tracks.

Clerkship directors make your location assignments shortly before each rotation. Some clerkships ask students to submit their preferences at that time.

Year-4 Clerkships and Electives

In January of Year 3, you will meet with members of the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions to discuss Year 4 scheduling.

• You have several weeks to review the Catalog of B-II Electives, meet with your advisor, and plan your schedule.
  
  
• You have eight priority points to assign to the clerkship or elective(s) you consider most important. Electives may be chosen from the catalog or developed by you in conjunction with a sponsoring department.
  
  
• Your electives should be from three different departments, and one should be in primary care. No more than two may be taken at non-WSU locations unless approved by the Student Promotions Committee.
  
  
• Student-Initiated Electives are available. You may not do more than three Student-Initiated Electives. Review your Catalog of Biennium II Electives for procedures and requirements for establishing Student-Initiated Electives.
  
  
• You may choose two months of Year 4 for vacation and visiting potential residency program sites.

Student Initiated Year-4 Electives

Developing or taking an elective that isn't part of an approved program in the Association of American Medical Colleges or the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Hospitals may require approval from the B-II Curriculum Subcommittee.

The details in your proposal outline should correspond to WSU Boonshoft SOM knowledge of the proposed sponsor. Significant detail will speed the process when the departmental Y-4 elective director isn't familiar with the sponsor. Upon approval, discuss your proposal with, and receive approval from your advisor first, the department second, and the WSU Boonshoft SOM Y-4 elective director.

Coordinate arrangements with those who will supervise the experience. Then confirm them in writing. You should complete the Student-Initiated Elective approval form and submit it to the Y-4 elective director with your proposal, a written confirmation of arrangements, an elective description, and an acceptance signature by the sponsor. The completed proposal with signatures must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs at least 45 days prior to the start of the elective.

The Office of Student Affairs/Admissions will submit your proposal package to the B-II Curriculum Subcommittee for approval and will notify you and the department of approval/not approved. If approved, an updated copy of your schedule will be mailed to you. If not approved, the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions will contact you. Off-campus electives in which the preceptor/evaluator is a relative of the student will not be approved. You are responsible to notify the elective preceptor of any withdrawal or alteration of arrangements previously confirmed.

If you drop a Student-Initiated Elective after it has been added to your schedule, request a Drop/Add form, have it signed by your advisor and the appropriate department chair, and return the form to the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions at least 30 days before the elective is to begin.

Electives will be offered in two- and four-week periods. Eight credit hours will be assigned to each of the monthly elective experiences and four credit hours will be assigned to each two-week elective.

Extramural Year-4 Electives

Extramural electives include both fourth-year course offerings listed at other institutions and student-initiated electives at other institutions. B-II students may take two extramural electives without approval of the Student Promotions Committee; however, if academic deficiencies are apparent, the committee may place a lower limit on extramural electives. If you would like to take extramural electives, you must contact external institutions for application materials.

Extramural request forms are available in the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions. Approval by your advisor and the Y-4 elective director is required before submission to Student Affairs/Admissions for approval. Department chairs are responsible for review and approval of content and evaluation procedures of all electives in their specialty. The sponsoring department is responsible for distribution and collection of evaluation forms. The extramural form should be accompanied by a complete description as published by the approved institution. The extramural form must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs with all necessary signatures no later than 45 days before the start of the elective. You will be notified regarding elective approval/not approved. If an extramural elective is canceled after being added to your schedule, a Drop/Add form must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs/Admissions after signatures are obtained from your advisor and the appropriate department chair.

International Year-4 Electives

International electives are subject to the policy governing student-initiated electives.

Schedules can be changed at any time throughout the academic year with your advisor's approval and sufficient notice. If a desired elective is not available, you may ask to be put on a waiting list and notified if a vacancy occurs.