Phase 3 (Year 4) Curriculum
During their fourth year, students prepare for entering residency by assuming more responsibility for patient care, delving into elective experiences to explore careers and connect with clinical mentors, and participating in a transition to residency course. The wide variety of courses encourages students to both explore potential career options and acquire the expertise to succeed on day one of their residency. Students may take electives within and outside the UI COM system
Phase 3 Requirements Heading link
UI COM Graduation Requirements
- Sub-internship: 4 weeks
- Acute care of the patient (EM/ICU): 4 weeks
- Physician Supervised Patient-Facing clinical electives: 8 weeks
- For class of 2024 taken during M4 after 04/24/2023
- For class of 2025 taken during M4 after 04/25/2023
- Transition to residency: 2 weeks
- Free (Open) electives: 20 weeks
UI COM Rural Graduation Requirements
- Sub-internship: 4 weeks
- Acute care of the patient (EM/ICU): 4 weeks
- RMED Immersion: 16 weeks
- Community Oriented Primary Care: 2 weeks
- Transition to residency: 2 weeks
- Free (open) electives: 10 weeks
Sub-Internship Heading link
The sub-internship is a primarily inpatient rotation in which the Phase 3 student has primary responsibility for patients under the direct supervision of a resident or attending and has continuity of care with their patients. Only courses listed in the catalog as a sub-internship will fulfill this requirement. Sub-internships may be done at another LCME accredited institution if the course is identified in the schools’ catalog as a sub-internship and meets the College of Medicine Curriculum committee’s approved requirements. In order for a sub-internship at another institution to be approved as meeting the graduation requirement, the student must seek approval from their local Curriculum Dean or Phase ⅔ Director.
Acute Care Heading link
All UI COM students are required to complete at least one clinical course in Emergency Medicine or Intensive Care. In these courses, students will be able to recognize and care for patients experiencing emergent or urgent conditions. This experience will help prepare them for their internship, when they will need to determine when a patient is medically unstable and what level of care is needed. It is strongly encouraged that the acute care rotation be taken during the student’s Phase 3 year.
Transition to Residency Heading link
This highly-interactive 2-week course completes the Clinical Connections and Competency curriculum. It serves as a capstone course for the clinical years, and topics ranging from professional development to intern-level clinical skills are covered. This course must be completed in the last semester of the student’s enrollment in the college of medicine.
Free (Open) Electives Heading link
Students are required to complete a total 20 weeks of free (open) electives. These free (open) electives may be taken during their Phase 2 or Phase 3 year. Students are able to enroll in and complete any combination of research electives, clinical electives, non-clinical electives, or self-designed electives to meet the required weeks.
Research Electives:
A UI COM student may receive credit hours for weeks spent doing research if the following conditions are met.
- The research project must be approved by the appropriate dean or research director for that student’s home campus. This approval will include a review of the proposed research project to ensure it meets the coursework expectations of a course within the UI COM.
- The student must be supervised by a UI COM faculty member during their research.
- For two-week electives a student must submit an abstract or a project summary at the end of the course. For four-week research electives the student must submit a manuscript intended for publication at the end of the course. A UI COM student may only complete 8 hours of research course work for credit hours. A student may not receive course credit for retrospective work, (i.e., work done before the initial approval of the elective). Medical Scientist Training Program students are able to receive 12 weeks of research credits.
Self-Designed Electives:
Self-Designed elective courses may be clinical or nonclinical in nature. They may be done outside of UI COM or in the community with the approval of the student’s local Phase ⅔ Curriculum Dean or Director. Self-Designed elective approval comes after review of the course’s goals/objectives, instructional features, and means of assessment. Self-Designed electives should not be more than 4 weeks in length. Self-Designed electives are not a required component of the UI COM curriculum but may be used to meet the free (open) elective credit requirement.
Clinical Electives:
These electives are courses that are available to UI COM students that allow students to work directly with patients and preceptors, thus impacting patient care and enhancing the student’s knowledge in the field of study. These electives are not a required component of the UI COM curriculum and may be used to meet the Patient-Facing Elective, Sub-Internship (if so identified), Acute Care in Medicine (if so identified), and free (open) elective credit requirements. Patient-Facing electives can be identified by the student’s home campus. Pathology and radiology based courses are clinical electives but are not generally considered patient-facing electives. These courses will be graded using the Clinical Elective Assessment form.
Non-Clinical Electives:
These are college approved course work available to third and fourth year students which do not meet the requisite clinical time and patient care needed to be considered clinical. These courses are not a required component of the UI COM curriculum and may only be used to fulfill the free elective credit requirement. This includes online electives and electives on topics not pertaining directly to clinical care (e.g. science in medicine or humanities in medicine). These electives will be graded using the Non-Clinical Elective Assessment form.
Intro Heading link
The phase 2 and 3 calendar runs in parallel on all campuses, allowing students on all campuses to take elective courses across the College. Students benefit from immersion in diverse clinical locations across the state of Illinois and from mentorship by faculty in Chicago, Rockford and Peoria. As students set up their phase 3 schedule, the registration process provides opportunities for students to select electives on the campus of their choice.