Objectives: The preclinical years of undergraduate medical education provide educational
content in a structured learning environment whereas clerkships provide clinical training in a …

Background: Preclerkship clinical-skills training has received increasing attention as a
foundational preparation for clerkships. Expectations among medical students and faculty …

Purpose Educators have begun to question whether medical students are adequately
prepared for the core clerkships. Inadequate preclerkship preparation may hinder learning …

Background: Medical students often struggle to apply their nascent clinical skills in
clerkships. While transitional clerkships can orient students to new roles and logistics …

Students have reported several challenging aspects of the transition to clerkships, such as
applying clinical knowledge, learning experientially, using clinical skills, adjusting to clinical …

Setting Before 2013, between the preclinical (2 years) and clinical (2 years) phases of the
curriculum, all students at VCU-SOM completed a 1-week clinical orientation. This …

Background and Objectives: Despite the move toward integrated 4-year medical school
curricula, many medical schools still offer a “2+ 2” curriculum divided into preclinical and …

Starting clerkships is anxiety provoking for medical students. To ease the transition from
preclerkship to clerkship curricula, schools offer classroom-based courses which may not be …

Purpose Despite curricular shifts toward a clinically oriented first two years of medical
school, students continue to struggle with the transition to clerkships. Transition courses are …

Purpose To explore the congruence between students' and clerkship directors' perceptions
and attributions of students' struggles during the transition to clerkships. Method Focus …