Students in the University of Vermont College of Medicine Class of 2017 recently gathered to claim their spot in one of seven flight groups that will be fanning out to doctor’s offices and medical centers in Connecticut, Maine, Florida, and Vermont for the next phase of their medical education: The Clinical Clerkship.
Level Two of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum, the Clinical Clerkship, is when students leave the classroom behind to join medical teams in hospitals and outpatient settings in seven different specialties. Students build their clinical skills, and start to gain familiarity in different areas of medicine in preparation for the residency match.
On October 9, 2014, with some fanfare and some nervous excitement, students participated in the Flight Group Lottery, an event organized by the Office of Medical Student Education. Held in the Sullivan Classroom, students were chosen at random to come to the front of the room to select their flight group. These groups of 16 or 17 students each move through the clinical rotations – Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Neurology/Outpatient, and Psychiatry – in a sequence particular to their group. With the rotation order for some Flight Groups deemed more desirable than others for various reasons, the lottery generates considerable anticipation. The student who endures this anxiety the longest, selecting his or her group last, receives a nice reward: a fishbowl full of $1 bills contributed by classmates.
After the Flight Groups are assigned, and after a period where students are allowed to “trade” groups, they then rank their preferences for locations to complete their six to seven week-long clerkships.
This year, the list of potential clerkship sites grew by one: Norwalk Hospital in Norwalk, Conn., will be hosting students for Inpatient Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, and Neurology/Outpatient Internal Medicine. In early 2014, the 328-bed Norwalk Hospital became part of the Western Connecticut Health Network, which includes Danbury Hospital, one of the College’s current clinical affiliates, and New Milford Hospital. The clinical affiliate designation with Norwalk builds on a research partnership that dates back to 2013. Other clinical affiliates that students may choose for rotations include Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Vt., St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Fla., and Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor. Students assigned to Fletcher Allen Health Care may also go to Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital in Plattsburgh, N.Y., and Central Vermont Medical Center in Barre, Vt., for a segment of their rotations. CVPH offers a two-week Pediatrics rotation and a six-week Obstetrics/Gynecology rotation. Students may spend two weeks at Central Vermont Medical Center for Psychiatry.
The Class of 2017 officially begins their clerkships with a Bridge Week at the College of Medicine starting March 16, 2015.