Clinical Sciences

The clinical sciences years or clerkships and electives are the most exciting parts of your medical career. This is probably the first time that students are allowed to have patients and are expected to integrate what they have learned in basic sciences. The first year of clinicals or your third year of medical school is usually your clerkships. Clerkships are most often the 5 (sometimes 6) primary medical specialties. These specialties are: 1) internal medicine (12 weeks), 2) surgery (12 weeks), 3) pediatrics (6 weeks), 4) psychiatry (6 weeks) and 5) obstetrics and gynecology (6 weeks.) Most schools have now added 6-weeks of family medicine to the cores as well. Once the third year is completed, students are expected to pick their own desired specialties. If one is interested in ObGyn then they should design their fourth year so that it best prepares them for their specialty.

The challenge in picking electives is to design your schedule so that although you are learning as much as you can in the area you are interested, you are not neglecting other avenues. For example, if one is interested in Obgyn then perhaps they should take 3/4 of their rotations in Obgyn related fields (i.e. Obgyn oncology, Pediatric ICU, etc.) and take 1-3 rotations in other fields such as Internal medicine or Radiology.