Students gathered in Carpenter Auditorium October 10 to select their “flight group,” the order of the clerkship rotations they will follow in the course of the second level of the Vermont Integrated Curriculum.  There are seven areas of focus: Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Ob/Gyn, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Neuro/Outpatient, and Psychiatry.  Each rotation lasts for approximately six weeks and is held at one of the College of Medicine’s clinical affiliate sites: Fletcher Allen Health Care in Burlington, Danbury Hospital in Danbury, Connecticut, St. Mary’s Medical Center in West Palm Beach, Florida, or Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine. The purpose of the clerkship is to emphasize the basic principles of clinical medicine, including primary and preventative care, while building clinical skills for students through daily care of patients.  Clerkships will begin in March of 2014.

The process students use to select their flight is an engaging lottery where the students draw their classmates’ names at random to go to the front of the room and enter their preference.  Each student brings a one dollar bill to drop in a bowl for the last student to receive as a reward for having to be the last to choose.  Mikaela Rodriguez was the first up and chose flight group F, which begins with a rotation in Neuro/Outpatient and finishes in January of 2015 in Internal Medicine.  Jenna Bateman was the last name to be drawn and the lucky recipient of the lottery cash.

The order of clerkships will be finalized on October 14, but the opportunity for students to trade flight groups will continue through November 11.