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2024-2025 Graduate Catalog
Osteopathic Medicine, D.O. (252 hrs)
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Program Overview
Goals and Objectives Consistent with its mission and the osteopathic medical profession, the goal of WCUCOM is to provide high-quality medical education with the following objectives: - Recruit and train students primarily from Mississippi and the Gulf South region in order to positively address the physician shortage in the region;
- Emphasize training in primary care through a high-quality, professional education program;
- Prepare students for lifelong learning through the involvement in scholarly activity;
- Provide an academic community in which the individual student is encouraged to develop his or her highest potential in scholarship, leadership, and service, and where the atmosphere will foster recognition of the infinite worth of the individual and acceptance of and respect for a variety of religious expression; and
- Engage faculty and students in research and scholarly activities in order to advance the body of existing knowledge in osteopathic medicine.
Core Competencies With a primary aim to train physicians for careers in primary care medicine, the WCUCOM curriculum is based upon core competencies in medical education as identified by the AOA and the American Association of Colleges of Osteopathic Medicine (AACOM): - Osteopathic Principles and Practice;
- Medical Knowledge;
- Patient Care;
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills;
- Professionalism;
- Practice-based Learning and Improvement; and
- System-based Practice.
The first competency, Osteopathic Philosophy and Practices (OP&P), is the lynch pin competency that holds the other six competencies together, with integration. Program Admission Requirements
The College of Osteopathic Medicine (COM) uses a comprehensive approach to the selection of students, considering all aspects of an applicant. Applicants who meet general admission qualifications will be sent a secondary application. Prospective students should visit the COM Admissions page (https://www.wmcarey.edu/page/com-admissions) for information on the admission process, academic requirements, technical standards, and filing dates. The page also contains links to the curriculum plan, tuition costs and fees, and financial aid. Program Progression Requirements
- Students must pass all required courses in each academic term in order to progress to the next academic term.
- A student has failed a course when he/she receives a grade of ‘F’ at the completion of the course, after any approved remediation has been completed. The Program Director, with approval of the WCU Vice President for Academic Affairs, may allow a student to proceed when repeating a course is not an option due to the specific course not being available.
- The Program Director will review remediation options for the student before final approval. The recommendations may include repeating a course, individual remediation, or program dismissal.
Program of Study (252 hrs)
Pre-Clerkship Curriculum (OMS 1 and OMS 2)
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 |
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