After the USMLE Step I is complete, the students are introduced to their clinical experiences through Transition to Clerkships, a two-week block which incorporates a series of teaching sessions and simulation activities that will prepare students for the clinical setting and the academic rigor of the clerkship experience. Large and small group sessions are designed to cover a number of important topics including:

  • Lab Medicine.
  • Radiology Overview.
  • Patient Safety and Quality Care.
  • Resuscitation and ACLS.
  • Communication Skills.
  • Cultural Competency.
  • Ethics and Professionalism.
  • Giving and Receiving Feedback.
  • Mobile Decision Support Tools and Biomedical Informatics.
  • Recognizing Fatigue.
  • Clinical Boot Camp.
  • Integrative Medicine. 

The Transitions to Clerkship Block incorporates a series of teaching sessions and simulation activities that helps you synthesize everything you have learned in the first two years of medical school and prepares you to excel in your clinical rotations. Experts in their fields, our faculty have prepared interactive presentations that will equip you with the fundamental tools needed to launch you into the clinical setting with competence and confidence! The tools you learn in this block will empower you to succeed in your clinical rotations and throughout your entire medical career.

Learning Objectives

Educational Program Objectives are a subset of more broadly defined physician competencies, which represent general domains of performance for which the profession and the public hold physicians accountable.

Upon completing the Transitions to Clerkship Block, students should be able to:

  • Build on prior knowledge and develop new strategies to enable them to excel in the clinical setting. They will apply these strategies to develop an understanding of their role and responsibilities in the clinical clerkship environment.
  • Determine the importance of professionalism and learn how to model this behavior in the clinical setting. Develop strategies for dealing with conflict in the professional setting.
  • Understand how cognitive biases affect clinical decisions and how to avoid them.
  • Define the role of laboratory and transfusion medicine in addition to pathology in the clinical setting and discuss their use in the clinical setting.
  • Apply previously learned history taking and physical exam skills in order to evaluate, present using medical vernacular, and develop differential diagnoses and plans for patients who will present to different specialties.
  • Apply previously learned oral and written communication skills to the clinical setting and formulate new tactics to effectively and efficiently communicate with health care professionals.
  • Synthesize the plan of care for patients using available resources during case presentations utilizing critical thinking skills acquired in the preclinical years. Use evidence-based medicine tools to answer specific questions regarding patient care and deliver concise, well thought out answers utilizing evidence-based medicine support for conclusions.
  • Determine the appropriate radiographic study for patients based on presentation, understanding the risks inherent to many radiologic studies. Develop a standardized approach to reading basic radiographic studies.
  • Explain how to perform basic procedures in the clinical setting. Utilize clinical assessment skills and resuscitation principles to effectively care for and treat simulated patients.
  • Introduce students to their new clinical role and define the daily duties that will be expected of them in the clinical years. Explain the upcoming clinical years as far as expectations, work hours, and assessment (behavioral competencies and shelf exams) during clerkship rotations and describe your anticipated approach to maintain a healthy lifestyle during this rigorous schedule.