Now It Gets Real
Clerkships for MD15 - A clerkship is an educational exercise that brings the student into personal contact with patients, under the supervision of a faculty member. It is a total immersion experience that involves the student for a full working day for the duration of the clerkship and, when appropriate, for on-call duty during nights and weekends.
Core clerkships and the selective clerkships must be taken under the direct, personal supervision of Brown faculty; generally, no exceptions are permitted. Other courses should not be scheduled concurrently with a required core clerkship, except for approved longitudinal ambulatory clerkships.
Core Clerkships
Students must complete 50 weeks of core clerkships. All of the core clerkships must be completed by the end of quarter 5a (6/15/12)
- Biomed 301 Clerkship in Medicine (12 weeks)
- Biomed 390 Clerkship in Surgery (6 weeks)
- Biomed 450 Clerkship in Pediatrics (6 weeks)
- Biomed 490 Clerkship in Obstetrics/Gynecology (6 weeks)
- Biomed 510 Clerkship in Psychiatry (6 weeks)
- Biomed 580 Clerkship in Family Medicine (6 weeks)
- Biomed 540 Clerkship in Community Health (6 weeks)*
*The Community Health clerkship is completed in Year 4.
The Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship (LAC)
The Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship occurs in the last two years of medical school. The six months must be taken at one site. More months may be taken at the same or other sites. Students may elect to attain competence in the longitudinal ambulatory care of patients through a clinical elective in any discipline that is approved for this purpose by the MD Curriculum Committee. For every ten weeks of longitudinal experience (based on one half-day per week), credit of one week will be given.
When planning your longitudinal ambulatory clerkship, be sure to carefully consider the best time to do it. If you do plan to do it concurrently with a core clerkship, please review the template of that clerkship (available from the Clerkship Coordinator) when planning which afternoon to do the longitudinal and be sure to discuss it with the clerkship director at least 6 weeks in advance.
Planning for your Longitudinal Ambulatory Clerkship - Guideline
Surgery-related electives (6 weeks)
Students are required to complete 6 weeks of a Surgery-related elective. You may choose one 4-week and one 2-week or three 2-week rotations to meet this requirement. A surgery sub-internship fulfills a portion of this requirement and the sub-internship requirement.
The following electives that have been identified as meeting the criteria to qualify as surgery-related electives.
- Anesthesiology 401, 402
- Applied Pathology 611
- Breast Disease 497
- Cardiothoracic Surgery 411, 412, 427 & 428
- Critical Care Medicine 335
- Emergency Medicine 562 & 563 & 565
- Endocrine Surgery 414
- Gynecologic Oncology & Pelvic Surgery 495
- Hand & Upper Extremity 398
- Intro to Surgical Oncology 391
- Neurosurgery 380
- Nutrition 423
- Ophthalmology 403, 407
- Orthopaedic surgery 395, 396, 397
- Otolaryngology 421
- Orofacial Surgery 430
- Pediatric Surgery 410
- Pediatric Urology 453
- Plastic Surgery 417
- Physical Medicine & Rehab 393
- Radiology electives 628, 629, 632, 633, 636, 638, 639
- Radiation Oncology 640
- Renal & Pancreas Transplantation 420
- Subinternship in Cardiac Surgery 427
- Subinternship in Cardiovascular Surgery 413
- Subinternship in Surgery 418, 419
- Surgery of the Alimentary Tract 392
- Surgical Intensive Care Unit 394
- Trauma 425
- Urology 415, 453
Away Electives
Are courses or clerkships taken at another institution. Certain clinical electives are offered at distant sites with which Brown has established formal association agreements. Alpert medical students are limited to 10 weeks of Away Electives. These electives are counted as Brown electives and may be used to fulfill the 12-week minimum requirement for Brown electives. If there is any question whether an elective counts toward the Brown elective requirement, the student should ask the clerkship coordinator.
> View the Association of American Universities' List of Away Electives in the U.S. and Canada
Students are encouraged to design/take electives that are imaginative and creative and based on advanced scholarship. These include independent study, research, the Eighth Semester Program, foreign study, NIH electives or other university courses outside of the medical curriculum.
Please note:
- Once scheduling is complete for core clerkship assignments, students may only change or swap a required core clerkship if the change results in each clerkship being filled as originally scheduled. Changes or swaps must be done no later than one month before the start date of the clerkship.
- Students may change elective schedules but no later than two weeks prior to the start of the elective except in the case of restricted electives.
- All required core clerkships, with the exception of Community Health, must be completed by the end of Quarter 4b (4/25/14) of Year III.
- Alpert medical students must take Step 1 and Step 2 of the United States Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE). They may be taken at any time prior to graduation, but generally students take Step I in April following the end of the second year of medical school. Brown medical students typically take Step 2 of the USMLE test in the fall of their senior year. It is best that the core clerkships be completed prior to the examination session.
- Students should not schedule a core clerkship during interviewing for residency training. If this becomes necessary, then it is the responsibility of the student to discuss this with the clerkship director and make the necessary arrangements. These arrangements may include additional time on the clerkship to compensate for absences.
- Students missing more than 5 days of a six week clerkship or 10 days of a 12 week clerkship will result in an automatic no credit for the clerkship and will be denied permission to enroll in any courses during the time allocated originally for the core clerkship, whether or not the courses are taken at Brown or at another institution.