A friend of mine’s son is at Vandy Med and it was interesting to learn that they start clinical rotations their 2nd year. How common is that?
I know that Vandy Med is very difficult to get into (seems to be a bit of a score-whore) and Vandy Med is known for only giving secondaries to a limited number of applicants. I can’t help but think some of this is related.
Hmm… there are several med schools with compressed didactics.
Duke SOM compresses all academics into 1 year, then Year 2 student start clinicals, Year 3 is for research, Year 4 is for clinical electives, aways & residency interviews.
NYU has a primary care pathway that has 18 months of didatics, then student immediate start clinicals in January of their second year. These students are guaranteed primary care residencies that begin in Year 4.
Baylor has compressed didactics that finish midway thru Year 2.
Univ of New Mexico has compressed didactics that end before winter break of Year 2. Phase 2 (clinical rotations) start in the spring.
Starting with the Class of 2019, Univ of Washington has compressed didactics that end before winter break of Year 2.
Starting with the Class of 2021, Georgetown SOM will have 18 months of compressed didactics.
OHSU SOM is currently piloting a competency based, individualized, self-paced curriculum that allows students to take as much (or as little) time they need to pass an exit exam in each content area.
Medical school curriculum is always undergoing changes and revisions.
More schools with compressed curricula:
UC-Davis has a new 3 year primary care track similar to NYU’s. 18 months of didactics followed by primary care clerkships and guaranteed residencies in Year 4.
BTW, the AAMC has very handy database that has all kinds of data on med school curricula:
[Curriculum Inventory and Reports (CIR)](https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/cir/474336/35.html)
Go to this url–> https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/cir/426810/05d.html to see the public data about various aspects of med school curricula–like how many weeks of various specialties med students are exposed to, how long didactic instruction lasts, typs of instruction used, number of hospital sites sued by various types of med schools, etc.
According to this chart–>https://www.aamc.org/initiatives/cir/474336/35.html
–there are 3 med schools which complete didactics by the end of spring in Year 1.
–there are 45 med school which complete didactics by mid-year (December/January) of Year 2; clerkships start in the spring of year 2.
–there are 85 med school where didactics runs through spring of Year 2; clerkships start in the summer
Drexel, University of Oregon and Harvard.
I don’t like it. Med schools seem to want pre-med students to major in humanities to be “well-rounded” and then hasten them through the science component of medical school as if knowing less will make them a better doctor. None of it is rational. Virtually zero doctors do research and virtually 100% treat patients. I am sure the students would like the idea of 1 year of basic science in med school but not the patients. Water boils at 212, not 150.
Your wrong–Water boils at 198 degrees! (At least where I live. Makes life interesting and pressure cooker a necessity.) Also all babies are born blue and the normal max O2 sat is 96%.
Both my daughters attend/attended a med school with compressed second year. (Something this school pioneered back in the 90s–so they’ve been doing it for a while now.) Students finish didactics in December of second year. Neither my daughters nor their classmates seem to be deficient in basic science knowledge since the school has an excellent first time pass rate on the USMLE (>96%). This school also requires a research-based thesis for all students for graduation–and all the students seem to be able to manage that too.
@learninginprog University of Oregon doesn’t have a medical school. Oregon’s only in-state public med school is at OHSU (Oregon Health & Science University) in Portland.
@WayOutWestMom , correct. Funny that the person I know who is affiliated there, rolls her eyes at me for saying that. It seems many many moons ago , it was known as Univ of Oregon Health Science Center.
@WISdad23 That’s the problem with psychiatry too. They can treat, can give heavy meds, but don’t have the research background sufficient to even evaluate studies.