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VCOM College Catalog
Mission and Objectives of the College
Commitment to the Rural Community
History and Founding of the College
Administration &
Board of Directors
- General Information
- Admissions Process
- Applications Deadline
- AACOMAS Application
- VCOM Application Process
- Secondary Application
- Early Decision Admissions Track
- Professionalism in the Process
- Minimum Requirements for Admission
- Selection Process
- Transfer Applicants
- Attrition, Retention, Transfer, and Graduation Rates
- Post-Bac Program - Attrition, Retention, Graduation and Placement Rates
- International Student Applicants
Technical Standards for Admission to VCOM [+]
After Graduation: Assistance with Choosing your Medical Career
Campus Fire and Safety Policies and Procedures:
VCOM Policies and Procedures [+]
Resolution and Grievance Procedures
Code of Conduct: Honor Code and Professional and Ethical Behavior
Clinical Program
Rural and Underserved Clinical Training
VCOM has developed a model medical curriculum that provides clinical training in non-urban communities with significant training experiences in rural areas. VCOM has established the resources for an academic environment in both rural and community based hospitals including electronic libraries, advanced videoconferencing systems, on-line VCOM TV, and a structured academic clinical training program. Rotations in the rural sites are designed to provide optimal learning experiences and are with contracted, fully appointed clinical faculty. With exposure to rural and medically underserved areas, students will gain an appreciation for the many rewards of rural and community based medicine. The rural training occurs for three to five months in hospitals that range in size from 25 to 100 beds. Students also spend five months in their third year in larger community based hospitals of 100 to 400 beds where core primary care and subspecialty training is available. The blend of rural hospital training with the training in larger community based hospitals provides the students with the hands-on experience in a one-on-one physician supervised setting and rotations in the fourth year with a traditional hospital service and residency exposure.
Clinical Sites
Early clinical experiences in years one and two occur in many sites from the core hospital sites to ambulatory sites where individual preceptors work with students to aid in learning clinical skills.
Third and fourth year clinical experiences occur primarily at the core and affiliated hospital sites for inpatient experiences and at the ambulatory family practice sites, rural family practice sites, and geriatric centers for outpatient experiences. Geriatric centers provide an educational experience for third and fourth year students and are considered imperative for training physicians for the care of patients in the upcoming decade. Students generally spend five months at a core major hospital site and five months split between an affiliated hospital site and critical access hospital site. Students with military HPSP scholarships are provided time at military hospitals.
All scheduling in the hospital sites as well as the educational program in each institution is provided through VCOM; therefore, the College is the main point of contact for each site regarding the educational programs for prospective students.
VCOM consistently updates its core clinical training sites, which can be viewed on VCOM’s website at: www.vcom.vt.edu.