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.
  • BMI Objectives:
    1. Describe clinical decisions and review the advantages and disadvantages of each.
    2. Describe the medical decision-making process for each patient.
    3. Discuss how patient preference affects clinical medical decision making.
  • 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 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.
  • Discuss risks and benefits of radiologic studies and review safety mechanisms in place to protect patients when radiation exposure is necessary. 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.
  • Understand the legal obligations of consent to treat discussions with patients and describe what this discussion, both oral and written, should include. Explain how to minimize risk as it pertains to medical malpractice in the clinical setting. Understand the importance of complying with laws in order to protect patients and health care workers in medicine and be able to explain the student’s role in ensuring best practices in the clinical setting.
  • Discuss 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 their anticipated approach to maintain a healthy lifestyle during this rigorous schedule.
  • Synthesize culturally relevant information and develop a course of action based on ethically sound judgment while being aware of their own personal and moral biases.