MD Curriculum
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As medical students at NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine, you learn the basic and clinical sciences that underpin all medical education, while simultaneously gaining a fundamental understanding of health systems science—the study of how healthcare is delivered, how healthcare providers work together, and strategies to deliver safer, higher-quality patient care.
Our curriculum emphasizes establishing integrated care pathways—a patient care plan that details the essential steps in treating patients who have specific clinical conditions across many different medical disciplines—and improving communication and collaboration between community-based primary care providers and hospital-based specialists.
As a student in our program, you earn your medical degree more quickly and at a substantially reduced cost compared with students at other medical schools. Please view our academic calendars. As a graduate, you are prepared to transform how medicine is practiced.
Phase One: Foundational Basic Science Instruction and Research
During phase one, students spend 46 weeks completing interdisciplinary preclerkship courses that cover foundational basic science concepts in biology, anatomy, and physiology. You gain insight into the behavioral and social aspects of practicing medicine and develop the skills you will need during your clerkships to interact with patients and other healthcare providers.
Our Language Acquisition course introduces you to core basic science concepts with case-based clinical learning exercises. Subsequent organ systems courses take place in a dynamic mix of small and large group sessions to promote active learning.
In the afternoons, you participate in integrated longitudinal courses. These include clinical skills training, with a focus on integrating the structural content of anatomy, histology, pathology, and radiology; Health Systems Science topics; and a Continuity Ambulatory Practice Experience (CAPE). You also receive peer-to-peer and faculty-to-peer support during Learning Community: Social Sciences, Humanities, Ethics, and Professionalism (SHEP) meetings.
Throughout phase one, you participate in problem-based learning cases, small group discussions, large group lectures, seminars, clinical skills training, clinical simulations, and bedside teaching experiences.
You also have opportunities to take part in research. This may include completing literature reviews in a relevant area of study; applying basic statistical analysis and presenting data; maintaining a laboratory notebook with records of experiments and research notes; and attending lectures and laboratory meetings. If you choose to take part in research, you present your research findings and prepare an abstract for submission to an appropriate specialty meeting.
You also have time to explore individual interests or participate in tutoring sessions to improve your performance in areas of study that you find difficult.
Phase One Sample Schedule
This schedule represents phase one of NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine’s curriculum. All students progress through the first 46 instructional weeks of medical school on the same timeline. Students participate in longitudinal courses—including Health Systems Science and Population Health, Learning Communities, CAPE, and Practice of Medicine—at the same time as organ systems courses throughout phase one.
Phase Two: Clinical Skills Integration
During phase two, students spend 45 weeks participating in orientation and core clerkship rotations at NYU Langone Hospital—Long Island and our clinical training sites. Over the course of phase two, students develop the clinical judgment necessary to diagnose diseases and treat patients.
Students participate in core clerkships in several areas: internal medicine, neurology/rehabilitation, obstetrics and gynecology, pediatrics, primary care, psychiatry, and surgery. Although all students have specific goals and expectations they must meet for each clerkship, much of the training depends on the needs of the patients’ treatment and management during rotations.
Once a week, you take part in one of several longitudinal courses. These include continuity clinics, problem-based learning cases, Health Systems Science, Learning Communities: SHEP, and other peer learning experiences.
During this phase, you also take the comprehensive clinical skills exam, a series of mock patient encounters that assess your skills in communication, taking patient histories, conducting physical examinations, and clinical reasoning.
Phase Two Sample Schedule
This sample schedule represents phase two of NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine’s curriculum. During phase two, students complete a Transition to Clinical Care orientation and participate in one of four clerkship tracks during which they rotate through all medical school clerkship specialties over the course of 45 weeks.
Phase two clerkship rotations include eight weeks of internal medicine, four weeks of primary care, six weeks of pediatrics, six weeks of obstetrics and gynecology, six weeks of surgery, four weeks of neurology/rehabilitation, and six weeks of psychiatry. Student clerkship schedules vary. The four different tracks in the sample schedule provided are a sample of what a clerkship schedule could look like in different scenarios.
All students take part in longitudinal courses at the same time as their clerkships throughout phase two. Longitudinal courses include Health Systems Science, Learning Community: SHEP, Radiology, and CAPE.
Students also have two weeks of electives.
Phase Three: Advanced Skill Development, Individualized Exploration, and Career Preparation
During phase three of our curriculum, students spend 42 weeks completing longitudinal educational experiences, rotations in the emergency room, a subinternship, an advanced clerkship, electives, and a Transition to Residency course. Students also participate in a a four-week structured capstone to prepare for the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) Step 1 and a three-week structured capstone course to help prepare for the USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge examination.
Phase Three Sample Schedule
This sample schedule represents phase three of NYU Grossman Long Island School of Medicine’s curriculum. During phase three, students complete two structured capstones to prepare for the USMLE Step 1 and USMLE Step 2 Clinical Knowledge exam; 4-week rotations in emergency medicine, an advanced clinical experience, and a subinternship; 12 weeks of electives; and a structured 4-week Transition to Residency course. Students’ rotation schedules vary. The rotations represented are a sample of what a schedule could look like.