Welcome to the clinical phase of your medical education at the University of Michigan Medical School. During the Scientific Trunk, you were involved in a form of learning that was not very dissimilar from your undergraduate education. You attended lectures, labs, and small groups. You structured your day in such a way that your own particular study habits and style could be maximized. And you were successful. Congratulations!

Your education will be immensely rewarding, but drastically different, beginning September 30, 2019. You will practice your professional role: being a physician. Your learning will shift to a much more active, self-directed mode. In the clinical years, you will be expected to be part of the team and to be proactive and independent in your learning style. The structure of your days will change from a more formal, regimented structure in which large blocks of time have been dedicated to lecture or concentrated study to a format where you will be expected to assume responsibility for your patients; where you are the "expert" in their case. Amidst all this, you will need to find time to read and learn in much smaller (but just as important) segments.

Grading is an important feature of clinical training. Grading will be based on clinical performance while on each clerkship. Attendance, punctuality, professionalism, and the amount of time you spend on each rotation, along with your clinical and exam performance, have a direct relationship to your clerkship grades.

This handbook is designed to provide information about the Clinical Trunk experiences, which include the required clerkships, weekly Science & Practice of Medicine sessions, and several exercises involving standardized patients.

The Clinical Trunk year is packed full of required clerkships, each one with information vital to your future career as a physician. You will find life as a Clinical Trunk student challenging, boring, busy, difficult, and almost impossible at times, but also exhilarating, thrilling, and fulfilling. You will feel an enormous sense of accomplishment.

Beginning September 30, you should think of yourself as a member of the medical profession.

Welcome.

Sincerely,

Cyril Grum, MD Professor, Internal Medicine