MEDICAL YEAR 3 AND 4 JUNE AFTER M2T3
I2C
Clinical Clerkships
COMLEX LEVEL 2
GRADUATION
M3/M4 CURRICULUM After completion of the first two preclinical years of medical school and the board(s), students then move on to their clinical clerkships. Before heading out to “the real world” however, students will spend the month of June following their second year in a “home rotation” called Introduction to Clerkships or I2C. This course is designed to teach and practice many of the hands-on skills that will be required on rotations. Thanks to I2C, PCOM students have a “head-start” on honing their clinical abilities and are thus received in a more favorable manner by their clerkship attending physicians and residents. Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine does not have its own “home” hospital, but it is instead partnered with numerous hospitals in the region. Through these means, our school offers two pathways to complete your clinical training: Traditional Rotating J-Groups and the Core Clinical Campus model.
J-Group or Junior Group rotations allow thirdyear students to learn in different departments of different hospital systems for each core rotation. For example, you could have Surgery at Christiana Care, but have Internal Medicine at Roxborough Memorial Hospital. The Core Clinical Campus model allows students to remain in a single hospital system for all of their third-year core rotations. Regardless of which “path” you choose to take, PCOM provides you with excellent hospitals, resources and clinical teachers along the way! The J-Groups and CCC models carry students through M3 but M4 is much more independent with electives and audition-rotations. There are an abundance of electives in the fourth year to allow students to explore their own interests and audition at hospitals of their choosing.
PERSPECTIVES: STUDENT VIEWS ON LIFE AT PCOM
17