Students

What Makes Our Students Different

Students engage in clinical experiences with real patients beginning in the first year. Working with patients in both clinical and community settings—the Free Clinic is one example—gives students a high level of comfort that eases their transition into residency. Students have numerous opportunities to learn hands-on clinical skills including suturing techniques.

First- and second-year students interact with “simulated patients,” who are coached to simulate an actual patient experience. Through these simulations, students learn how to take a medical history and develop their physical diagnosis, clinical and communication skills.

Learning at CCLCM is student-centered and student-driven. Using problem-based learning, students work through clinical cases to develop focused questions and generate a hypothesis. The clinical cases and the problem solving techniques closely mimic real life, so students quickly become comfortable with how medicine is actually practiced.

The ideal CCLCM students are self-starters, motivated learners and collaborative team members who can work within diverse groups. They embrace self-reflection and personal growth. And they thrive on discovering new approaches to a problem, even when the path to an answer is unclear.

The research curriculum begins on the first day and extends through all five years of the program. To strengthen learning, research topics are integrated into basic science and clinical courses, and every student participates in a basic research “bench” project during their first summer.

Follow us on Twitter @CleClinicLCM!