Clinical Clerkship Curriculum (OMS 3 - OMS 4)
The clinical clerkship curriculum leading to the Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine (DO) degree is a 20-month program designed to educate and equip osteopathic physicians with skills necessary to enable them to enter graduate medical education programs. The curriculum is designed to support the WCUCOM mission and emphasizes primary care. In the OMS 3 and OMS 4 years of the curriculum, students learn patient care, develop clinical technical skills, and serve as members of a medical team. Students spend time with clinical faculty at regional hub sites, primarily throughout the Gulf South. A “hub site” must have at least one accredited full-service hospital and may contain critical access hospitals, public and private clinics, and individual practitioners. Travel time between facilities within a hub site is limited to 60 minutes to minimize the amount that travel time encroaches on student study time or contributes to student fatigue. Students are responsible for transportation to and from assigned rotation locations without the assistance of WCUCOM.
An OMS 3 Student is defined as a student that has successfully completed all WCUCOM OMS 1 and OMS 2 curricular requirements, including score a 450+ on the school-administered COMSAE and must sit for an initial attempt at COMLEX-USA Level 1 within 60-days after completion of OMS 2 course requirements.
The OMS 3 curriculum begins with an introductory course (Introduction to Clinical Clerkship – OMS 7300), which serves as an orientation period leading into clinical rotations and the associated courses of the OMS 3 year.
Thirty-two weeks of the OMS 3 year is divided into 8 core rotations. These 8 core rotations will occur at a single hub site whenever possible. Basic procedures are demonstrated and practiced by students in each area of study. Students learn about the standard operating procedures of the hospital and office practice. Clerkship rotations provide increased continuity in training and offer students experience working with various allied health professionals. An additional 8 weeks of rotations must be completed during the OMS 3 year. Four of these weeks will be completed as a primary care selective experience, where students may choose to complete a rotation in either family medicine, internal medicine, OB/GYN, pediatrics, or mental health. The remaining 4 weeks will be completed as an elective experience, where students may elect to complete rotations in either medical or surgical specialties or participate in non-clinical experiences such as research, medical education, or medical Spanish.
The OMS 4 curriculum begins with an introductory course (Advanced Clinical Integration—OMS 8000), which prepares students for the increased responsibilities and expectations that they will encounter in their OMS 4 year. This experience incorporates on-campus, hands-on OMT review, clinical simulation, and professional development sessions, as well as study and review for the COMLEX-USA Level 2-CE.
In the OMS 4 year, the primary purpose of instruction is to help students apply the didactic background and preliminary clinical training received in core rotations to more intensive clinical experiences. Students are given greater patient-care responsibilities than in the OMS 3 year
but remain under the direct supervision of a resident or attending physician. There are 36 weeks of clinical rotations during the OMS 4 year, including two additional core rotations. OMS 4 core rotation experiences are 4 weeks in length and completed in the settings of Emergency Medicine and Rural Medicine. Core rotations must be completed within a WCUCOM hub site. The remaining 28 weeks comprise elective rotations, where students can select some of their own curriculum. This allows students to foster interests that have developed regarding a given specialty or to shore up areas of their knowledge that they would like to strengthen. A minimum of 12 weeks of elective rotations must be completed in medical specialties, such as cardiology, endocrinology, gastroenterology, general internal medicine, geriatrics, hematology/oncology, infectious diseases, nephrology, neurology, pulmonology, and medical critical care. In addition, a minimum of 12 weeks of rotations must be completed in surgical specialties, such as orthopedics, ophthalmology, neurological surgery, urology, and trauma surgery. Finally, 4 weeks of rotations must be completed in additional medical or surgical specialties or may be non-clinical experiences such as research, medical education, or medical Spanish. Students may elect to perform these rotations in any area of the country. As this curriculum remains unique to each individual student, course descriptions of the OMS 4 electives are not provided in the WCUCOM Student Handbook and Catalog. All other course descriptions can be found at William Carey University - Acalog ACMS™ (wmcarey.edu)
