Year 3 Clerkships - Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship

Overview

The Rural Health Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LIC) is a program designed to address the physician shortage in rural areas, allowing students to learn an evidence-based curriculum, acquiring clinical skills and medical knowledge in a context of continuity with patients, medical staff and community. The experience inspires many to ultimately practice in similar settings.

The structure provides simultaneous clinical experiences in multiple medical specialties, facilitating rapid acquisition of core medical competencies across a broad range of content. Clinically applied medical knowledge is reinforced as students care for their assigned cohort of patients for the duration of the course and participate in weekly interactive learning sessions with rural faculty.

LIC students are enrolled in sequential terms, approximately 10 weeks in duration. Integrated specialty training takes place in rural Arizona sites; while inpatient specialty clinical bursts may take place at teaching hospitals in Phoenix.

LIC Program Goals

• Prepare students to become rural physicians in areas of medical knowledge and clinical experience by immersing them in a rural health community.
• Enable students to establish continuity relationships with patients, their treatment teams and faculty preceptors, and treatment settings across the care continuum.
• Create continuity with a community of peer learners.
• Shift the emphasis of education from the hospital to the clinic.
• Develop personal skills, habits of inquiry, and systems-level quality improvement with a focus on excellence and patient safety in rural settings.

LIC students will integrate into clinical care via threaded specialty experiences mentored by their rural preceptors.  Depending on local teaching resources, some or all of the following specialties will be incorporated into the experience:

• Ambulatory Medicine Selective.
• Emergency Medicine.
• Family, Community and Preventive Medicine.
• Internal Medicine.
• Longitudinal Patient Care.
• Obstetrics and Gynecology.
• Pediatrics.
• Surgery.

Syllabus (PDF)

Application

• Submit this short application by the first Friday in October.
• Please note the selection committee will also request a Letter of Good Standing from the Student Affair's Office.

Thank you for your interest in this dynamic and innovative medical education program!