experience with a core specialty, study time, whatever!
So far, I have experienced pediatric psychiatry, family medicine, pediatrics, OB/GYN, emergency medicine and research during my white space time. Emergency and psych were burst weeks, the rest is my normal week.
The only challenge that I have faced due to COVID is that I am not allowed to see “PUI” patients, which are the patients who might have COVID but we aren’t sure, and I haven’t been able to see COVID+ people. This only was a problem really in the ED because many patients present with unknown COVID status. However, I was still able to see a lot! I did pediatric psychiatry via Zoom, which was a little odd and difficult, but I feel like I was still able to learn pretty well. I definitely think it would have been a better learning experience to have been at the hospital rather than on a video streamed to an iPad, but COVID times calls for COVID measures.
I was initially interested in LIC because I loved the idea of white space. I’m currently very interested in pursuing PM&R, which is a specialty that isn’t required for 3rd year and thus is not included in the traditional 3rd year block schedule. With the white space the LIC offers, I’m able to work with PM&R doctors frequently and experience any other specialty I’m interested in as well (from emergency medicine to dermatology and everything in between). I also love the idea of pursuing a pathway that allows me to get out of it what I give. Sometimes it’s easy to fall into a routine and just go through the motions. I feel like my schedule could be routine if I wanted it to be, but can also be ever changing. Another thing that grabbed my attention was the fact that I work with the same main preceptor all year. The medical education department has a pretty extensive interview process in which they determine what preceptor your personality would mesh with and that allows for a solid year of building a relationship with a preceptor with whom you get along with well. This means that you have the opportunity to continuously grow and build trust with that preceptor to the point where you have more opportunities than if you were to rotate for only 6 or 12 weeks.
I hope to gain clinical knowledge and skills from this program (obviously) and independence. There is a lot of hand holding when you start third year, but I’m starting to gain independence when I see patients and am building confidence in my medical decision-making abilities and clinical skills. I also hope to experience specialties that I wouldn’t be able to experience in the normal block schedule. This includes PM&R, rheumatology, nephrology, and more! I’m thankful that a program like this exists and that I was selected for it. <>
Morgan O’Leary, COM ’22, 2LT US Army
Class of 2022 President
Northern Light Eastern Maine Medical Center, Hampden, ME
The LIC program is a Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, which means you experience each of the core specialties required for 3rd year throughout the entire year rather than in blocks like the traditional program. As LIC students we have “normal” weeks and “burst” weeks. A normal week for me is Monday, Wednesday and half of Thursday in the family practice clinic with my main preceptor, the other half of Thursday in a pediatric clinic, and Friday in OB/GYN. My Tuesdays are white space days which I can fill with whatever experience I’d like to improve myself with- research, exploring other specialties, more