A Review of Third and Fourth Year Medical Education

This grant will help to fund a comprehensive review of clinical education at the nation’s 125 medical schools. In the initial phase, data will be collected to permit an assessment of such topics as the average number of weeks of each required clerkship, the amount of time devoted to ambulatory care during each clerkship, the number of different venues used to provide clinical experiences, and the number of elective rotations.

The initial phase will be followed by site visits to ten medical schools chosen for their diversity of offerings. Another four schools considered innovative in clinical education will also be visited, as will two medical schools in Canada. Data about clinical education in the United Kingdom also will be collected. As a final step, a small group of clerkship directors will meet to assist in evaluating the data that have been collected.

Donald Nutter, MD, Executive Associate Dean of Northwestern University Medical School who is Petersdorf Scholar in Residence at AAMC for the year, will oversee the project. The Macy grant covers the site-visit travel expenses for Dr. Nutter and Dr. Whitcomb, as well as the attendance of clerkship directors at the final evaluation meeting. A report of the findings will be broadly disseminated.