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Rural and Underserved Clinical Training
COM has developed a model medical curriculum that provides significant training experiences in rural areas. VCOM has established the resources for an academic environment in the rural and community based hospitals through electronic libraries, advanced telecommunications and videoconferencing systems, and a structured academic program.
Rotations in the rural sites are designed to provide optimal learning experiences, and 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 100 to 200 beds. Students also spend five months in their third year in larger community hospitals where the subspecialty training is available. The blend of rural hospital training with the training in larger community hospital experience provides the students with the hands-on experience in a one-on-one academic service and the traditional formal hospital service based education.
VCOM has recruited many talented academic physicians to the area as faculty. Through faculty and clinical recruitment and development, VCOM is improving the quality of care throughout Southwest Virginia.
Clinical Sites
The 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.
Medical student years three and four 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 (5) months at a Core Major hospital site and five (5) months split between an affiliated hospital site and critical access hospital site. Military HPSP scholarship students are provided time at military hospitals.
All scheduling in the hospital sites as well as the educational program in each institution is provided through the College, therefore the College is the main point of contact for each site regarding the educational programs for prospective students.