The Clinical Years …

Posted by on November 16, 2011

“Once you start asking questions, innocence is gone.”

~ Mary Astor

 

I was always the person to have life planned out years ahead. So when St. George’s University offered term 5 students a lecture on the clinical years, this 4th term student’s wife crashed the party.

It wasn’t a fun party.

I learned that the Glenns will not be in California next Fall. The Kern Medical Center clinical program in Bakersfield is only available to students who start in January. We started in August.

Our second choice is Detroit Michigan, which accepts 16 students. David’s class is more than 500 people strong. If we don’t get that, we will end up in New York.

Here are a few of the other notes I took at the meeting (all information subject to change on SGU’s whim):

  • A clinical center is a hospital you can stay at for the whole third year. The clinical centers are in New York, New Jersey, Detroit, and Bakersfield California. If you don’t get placed at a clinical center, you move around from state to state every 6 weeks or so. You can learn more about the whole thing by clicking this link.
  • Because New Jersey is, well, New Jersey, it’s clinical centers will not accept students who did their first year in England, aka, us. If you want to eventually practice or apply for a residency there, that’s just fine. No third/fourth year of med school though.
  • The third year of med school is tightly controlled. Hence, you have to go to a hospital that SGU approves. Your soul belongs to them for a year.
  • The fourth year is controlled by you. Move around, go wherever you want or stay where you are. But where you go has to be on SGU’s list – see all the entries under US Major Affiliated Hospitals here.
  • During year 3, SGU has enough clinical centers for 70 percent of its students. Other people have to travel state to state every 6 weeks or so to one of the “US Major Affiliated Hospitals.” SGU sets up this moving schedule for you. Yippee.
  • Academically, it doesn’t matter where the student goes – it’s the resident or attending you get stuck with that will make your third year heaven or hell.
  • 10 percent of the class ends up choosing England for their rotations. There will probably be more this year since foreign students aren’t allowed to come to the US to do their clinical years anymore.
  • 10 percent of the class drops out, takes a leave of absence, etc.
  • Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield will only take students with a 3.2 GPA and above and a USMLE Board Exam score of 210 and above. Oh, and they only start people in June. David will take his USMLE in July. That’s why we can’t go.
  • St Johns Hospital in Detroit will only accept people who have passed the USMLE. If you want to go there, your scores have to be in and processed asap. New York hospitals will take you with a “pending” USMLE score, then maybe kick you out of you didn’t pass.
  • If you want to practice in England eventually, you have to do more than half of your training outside the United States. So all those who want to eventually set up shop in the UK are coming back to the Grenadian hospitals for their fourth year of med school. Whoo hoo!!
My friend Kelsey (who is in fact a 5th term wife) and who is actually going through this process now, wrote a great blog on it here. Check it out!
Also, if there are any current clinical years people out there who want to correct me, please leave a comment! I might not like what all this info means for me and our family, but Mrs. Plan Ahead would rather know now.

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