My Ideal Medical School Curriculum 2022&Beyond: Critiques? How about yours?

[Redpancreas]

---

Members don't see this ad.

I think the medical school structure needs to be changed for many reasons (listed below). What do you think of this design?

M1:
A1.) Foundations in Human Biology (2 months/8 weeks):
Covers introductory concepts that recur in human medicine including cellular biology/biochemistry, histology, and physiology. Exams are Friday mornings.

A2.) Foundations in Clinical Medicine: (2 months/8 weeks):
For the first two months, a student is lectured on foundational concepts like the elements of the history and physical exam as well as preventative medicine concepts. Each week, there will be an OSCE on Friday afternoons with escalating level of sophistication. Emphasis will be placed on the art of doctoring as opposed to technical knowledge.

B1) Organ Systems (8 months/36 weeks) :
Each organ system will be covered from anatomy (prosection)/histology and progress to pathophysiology and pharmacology. Everything from Cardiology to Dermatology will be covered.

B2) Advanced Clinical Medicine (8 months/36 weeks)
Students will learn differential diagnosis skills through hybrid lecture/socratic discussions from clinical faculty in addition to interpretation of lab findings, treatment of common disorders (ex. anti-HTN agents). At the end of each organ system, there will be an OSCE (ex. 3 weeks for Cardiology, 1 week Dermatology) where a student will complete an H&P and be graded on his bedside manner, exam skills, data collection in the note, and assessment & plan. Students will also be graded on a separate verbal presentation to a preceptor who has not read their note.

Summer (2 months) : Students will sit for USMLE Step 1. Afterwards, they may use additional time to start work on research projects.

M2:
A1.) Internal Medicine Clerkship (2 months)
Students will pre-round, round on patients, and present them. Their patients will be rounded on and they will be dismissed for lunch.

A2.) Principles of Internal Medicine (2 months)
In the afternoons, students will solidify their clinical reasoning skills targeted at work-ups of common differentials such as chest pain, shortness of breath, anemia, etc. The final grade will be a mixture of a OSCE, NBME Exam, and Clinical Evaluations. Step 2 CK targeted material will be incorporated into the didactics.

B, C, D (8 months): Clerkships and Foundations Courses in General Surgery (3), Family Medicine (1), Neurology (1), Psychiatry (1), Pediatrics (1), and OB/GYN (1). Note that 2 weeks of IM, General Surgery; 1 week of Pediatrics, and Neurology will be ICU medicine.

E) Students will have 2 months to prepare and sit for USMLE Step 2 CK. Results will be provided in 2 weeks.

M3:
Students will rotate through structured electives. There will be required counts on hospital medicine, OR, clinic medicine, ICU, and night float. Formative and summative feedback will be provided to students during this time in the format of Standardized Letters of Evaluations. Competencies such as written documentation, verbal presentation, basic procedural capabilities will all be assessed. Students will obtain letters of recommendation at this stage.

M4:
All students complete a year long internship in either Medicine or Surgery effectively committing themselves to one or the other. Adequate time off will be provided for interview season. During the initial period, students can get an additional early letter that can be used for their residency application. Students will apply directly to advanced positions (PGY-2 IM/GS) or directly to Neurology, PM&R, Dermatology, Plastics, Neurosurgery, or Urology. Students must sit for USMLE Step 3 prior to December 31st of M4 year. If they fail, they will be enrolled in a intensive Step 3 USMLE prep course alongside clerkships to ensure passage prior to start of residency. By graduation, all students should be eligible to apply for a full medical license to work as a general practitioner.



Pros:
1. It saves a year in medical training. I think medical schools need to take more responsibility in the clinical training of their students. They will realize what their students struggle when doing the actual job and will adjust upstream accordingly.
2. It emphasizes clinical medicine as students are learn doctoring skills in M1, do half day clerkships in M2, and are ready to start applying everything in M3+
3. It creates a timeline more in line with the Step 2 CK focus.
4. Students have way more clinical experience before deciding on a field of choice.
5. It gives unmatched students the able to be licensed so they can do clinically relevant jobs while they are in the application cycle loop.

Cons:

1. The presentation of the basic material is obviously faster. I do think there are significant parts of the preclerkship curriculum that can be cut. I think this would be countered by having detailed didactics in M2 from the clinical perspective. Nonetheless, some students may not be able to tolerate such a fast pace in the material.

Nonetheless, the whole point is to speed up the minutiae everyone learns in medical school, but nevers sees again and slow it down in M2 and focus on what really matters...clinical medicine. More detailed mechanisms, applied physiology (ventilator medicine, acid&base) can be taught alongside M2 clerkships.

 

[Lost in Translation]

I don’t see how your 4th year curriculum would work (especially the directly applying to R2 spots without having done a formal intern year as an MD), and I don’t know how I feel about them taking Step 3 as an M4 (despite the test being mostly a formality at this point).

But I really like the other year structures.

 

[Phloston]

M1:
A1.) Foundations in Human Biology (2 months/8 weeks):
Covers introductory concepts that recur in human medicine including cellular biology/biochemistry, histology, and physiology. Exams are Friday mornings.

A2.) Foundations in Clinical Medicine: (2 months/8 weeks):
For the first two months, a student is lectured on foundational concepts like the elements of the history and physical exam as well as preventative medicine concepts. Each week, there will be an OSCE on Friday afternoons with escalating level of sophistication. Emphasis will be placed on the art of doctoring as opposed to technical knowledge.

B1) Organ Systems (8 months/36 weeks) :
Each organ system will be covered from anatomy (prosection)/histology and progress to pathophysiology and pharmacology. Everything from Cardiology to Dermatology will be covered.

B2) Advanced Clinical Medicine (8 months/36 weeks)
Students will learn differential diagnosis skills through hybrid lecture/socratic discussions from clinical faculty in addition to interpretation of lab findings, treatment of common disorders (ex. anti-HTN agents). At the end of each organ system, there will be an OSCE (ex. 3 weeks for Cardiology, 1 week Dermatology) where a student will complete an H&P and be graded on his bedside manner, exam skills, data collection in the note, and assessment & plan. Students will also be graded on a separate verbal presentation to a preceptor who has not read their note.

Summer (2 months) : Students will sit for USMLE Step 1. Afterwards, they may use additional time to start work on research projects.

M2:
A1.) Internal Medicine Clerkship (2 months)
Students will pre-round, round on patients, and present them. Their patients will be rounded on and they will be dismissed for lunch.

A2.) Principles of Internal Medicine (2 months)
In the afternoons, students will solidify their clinical reasoning skills targeted at work-ups of common differentials such as chest pain, shortness of breath, anemia, etc. The final grade will be a mixture of a OSCE, NBME Exam, and Clinical Evaluations. Step 2 CK targeted material will be incorporated into the didactics.

B, C, D (8 months): Clerkships and Foundations Courses in General Surgery (3), Family Medicine (1), Neurology (1), Psychiatry (1), Pediatrics (1), and OB/GYN (1). Note that 2 weeks of IM, General Surgery; 1 week of Pediatrics, and Neurology will be ICU medicine.

E) Students will have 2 months to prepare and sit for USMLE Step 2 CK. Results will be provided in 2 weeks.

M3:
Students will rotate through structured electives. There will be required counts on hospital medicine, OR, clinic medicine, ICU, and night float. Formative and summative feedback will be provided to students during this time in the format of Standardized Letters of Evaluations. Competencies such as written documentation, verbal presentation, basic procedural capabilities will all be assessed. Students will obtain letters of recommendation at this stage.

M4:
All students complete a year long internship in either Medicine or Surgery effectively committing themselves to one or the other. Adequate time off will be provided for interview season. During the initial period, students can get an additional early letter that can be used for their residency application. Students will apply directly to advanced positions (PGY-2 IM/GS) or directly to Neurology, PM&R, Dermatology, Plastics, Neurosurgery, or Urology. Students must sit for USMLE Step 3 prior to December 31st of M4 year. If they fail, they will be enrolled in a intensive Step 3 USMLE prep course alongside clerkships to ensure passage prior to start of residency. By graduation, all students should be eligible to apply for a full medical license to work as a general practitioner.



Pros:
1. It saves a year in medical training. I think medical schools need to take more responsibility in the clinical training of their students. They will realize what their students struggle when doing the actual job and will adjust upstream accordingly.
2. It emphasizes clinical medicine as students are learn doctoring skills in M1, do half day clerkships in M2, and are ready to start applying everything in M3+
3. It creates a timeline more in line with the Step 2 CK focus.
4. Students have way more clinical experience before deciding on a field of choice.
5. It gives unmatched students the able to be licensed so they can do clinically relevant jobs while they are in the application cycle loop.

Cons:

1. The presentation of the basic material is obviously faster. I do think there are significant parts of the preclerkship curriculum that can be cut. I think this would be countered by having detailed didactics in M2 from the clinical perspective. Nonetheless, some students may not be able to tolerate such a fast pace in the material.

Nonetheless, the whole point is to speed up the minutiae everyone learns in medical school, but nevers sees again and slow it down in M2 and focus on what really matters...clinical medicine. More detailed mechanisms, applied physiology (ventilator medicine, acid&base) can be taught alongside M2 clerkships.

What's your aim here? What are you trying to change? And where? There's non-uniformity across schools, and it will stay that way. As long as students pass their board exams and graduate, I don't see where schools are actually incentivized to critique their structures.

The transition to P/F Step 1 is aimed at delaying the inevitable obsolescence of medical schools, where students are forced to cater to MS1/2 exams rather than an external USMLE curriculum.

 

[Redpancreas]

I don’t see how your 4th year curriculum would work (especially the directly applying to R2 spots without having done a formal intern year as an MD), and I don’t know how I feel about them taking Step 3 as an M4 (despite the test being mostly a formality at this point).

But I really like the other year structures.

Thanks for the comment!

In essence my though is M1-3 can basically replace M1-4 as it stands now. That leaves M4 for medical students to do intern year at their medical school program. One big gap I see in medical education is how medical schools are like, we care about your step score and will do everything to help you match...but then what happens in residency or what actual doctoring skills you develop are not a priority. With this model, the medical school can see what kind of students they're training and who's ready for residency or not.

Regarding applying for R2 spots, that would have to be something UME and GME to modify before any of this can happen.

With Step 3, I feel with the added experience of doing intern year there's nothing holding them back from Step 3 and once they pass USMLE Step 3 they can get a medical license so any medical school graduate can have a shot at a clinical job in the interim of reapplying...or they can just hold onto that gig.

 

[Redpancreas]

What's your aim here? What are you trying to change? And where? There's non-uniformity across schools, and it will stay that way. As long as students pass their board exams and graduate, I don't see where schools are actually incentivized to critique their structures.

The transition to P/F Step 1 is aimed at delaying the inevitable obsolescence of medical schools, where students are forced to cater to MS1/2 exams rather than an external USMLE curriculum.

Thanks for the comment! On a personal level, I'm bored and I type things like this to entertain myself. I'm not involved at lobbying for this at any level.

The aims are basically the pros in the post. I think early clinical integration benefits US MDs for tons of reasons. I've mentioned this elsewhere but basically it allows for a faster training while retaining the essentials, gives MDs the ability to graduate and transition to clinical practice, and very importantly adapts to new world of P/F Step 1 in the way I think we should adapt to it. I don't think eliminating standardized tests is the answer because we need something like that. I think it's better to focus on Step 2 CK and a curriculum like this would do it. Another important thing is it gives medical students more opportunities to practical skills instead of being relegated to glorified shadowing that occurs at some places. Oh also, another advantage is right now clinical exposure M3 is only one year and then there's decision time but with this model you get two years (!! <3) before deciding on a field.

 

[Redpancreas]

Wouldn't shaving off a year and adding 25% more residents to the workforce each year drive down salaries and increase competitiveness for most specialties? I like your layout but this forum seems concerned with financial compensation and outlook of certain fields (EM, derm, etc).

That’s a fair point. If we drive up the supply (it won’t be 25%), we’re indeed deflating our salary potentially. I don’t think we should see this as that though. As a thought experiment should we add a year of medical school/residency to decrease our supply and increase salaries? Also, in cases where we’ve limited supply, midlevels get involved (Derm, GI) to undercut us so salaries are going down whatever we do. We should at this point do what’s best to train future doctors the most efficiently.

 

[mrbreakfast]

This is interesting in the sense that some medical schools are already doing something pretty similar to this - your M1-M3 years are pretty much what the med students at my residency program already do, i.e. by mid-year we have M3 rotators who have already completed all their clinical rotations, Step 1 and 2, and are rotating on their acting internship.

The criticisms are likely:
1) You have exactly one year of pre-clinical medicine. You're going to get students entering M2 who are deficient in pre-clinical knowledge, period. Not everyone can master everything in one year. This matters because you're probably going to have a higher percentage of students failing Step 1, and maybe Step 2.
2) You'd probably have trouble matching "med students" to PGY2 positions in IM or surgery - this would only work if every med school followed this pathway. Otherwise the students would likely be viewed as inferior to actual PGY1 residents.
3) This doesn't really work for residencies that are mostly/entirely categorical, e.g. pathology, psych, neurosurgery, ortho, EM, etc. The surgical subspecialists are going to want to do surgical rotations more suited to their fields, and the path/psych/EM people are not going to be interested in doing rotations that have nothing to do with their future field. Also, it'll be challenging to come up with a medicine year, for example, that both categorical medicine programs and advanced neuro/PM&R programs (which typically expect a much heavier inpatient load) will accept. People going into those fields probably aren't going to want to do an extra medicine year.

I think it's going to be tough to cut med school to 3 years, but making the M4 year entirely "acting internship"-level electives would be nice. For example, say I want to go into neurology. As an M4, I could take 3 months of inpatient neurology, 3 months of clinic, 3 months of EEG/EMG, and 3 months off for reading/interviewing/studying for Step 3/vacation. That's pretty close to the actual neurology PGY3 schedule at my institution. Any applicant who could casually mention that, as a med student, they've run a few dozen code strokes themselves, performed 20 EMGs, and have basic ICU EEG reading skills is going to match very well, regardless of step scores, because these are skills that basically zero medical students have in the current system. You could come up with a similar schedule for any specialty.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Wouldn't shaving off a year and adding 25% more residents to the workforce each year drive down salaries and increase competitiveness for most specialties? I like your layout but this forum seems concerned with financial compensation and outlook of certain fields (EM, derm, etc).

That's not how this would work. Residencies can only graduate so many people per year. Cutting a year off of medical school would not affect that.

 

[Redpancreas]

I like your ideas but how would this work for some schools that don't have anything more than a FM program? My buddy's school doesn't even have IM and for the past year the majority of his class just did virtual rotations and haven't seen a patient in nearly a year. Even pre-COVID these schools struggle to arrange rotations for their students and sometimes double up at a site if they lose another. This is very common across the board for DO schools and even a few MD.

Call me elitist/authoritarian but I personally don't think that's a medical school TBH if they don't have faculty associated directly with them to supervise things like Gen Surg or IM. Let me clear that this isn't an indictment at all on the students who go there who deserve a medical education. I understand the need for medical doctors in shortages and the need for medical schools, but these medical schools can't find a cohort of solid IM or Surgery faculty willing to start a department? There are like 500+ IM, 250ish Gen Surg residencies in the country, and only <200 MD/DO schools in the country. Something needs to happen there.

 

[mrbreakfast]

I like your ideas but how would this work for some schools that don't have anything more than a FM program? My buddy's school doesn't even have IM and for the past year the majority of his class just did virtual rotations and haven't seen a patient in nearly a year.

I also would not call what you describe a medical school. I understand it's a reality for some DO programs, but this setup is far from a comprehensive clinical education. Of course, some of these programs aren't trying to provide a comprehensive education in the first place; they're trying to train PCPs for an underserved area.

Unfortunately, the small but pervasive corner of medical education that profits by poorly training medical students and then funneling them into residencies that will train them equally poorly is a whole different problem to fix.

 

[NicMouse64]

I like the idea of M4 being intern year essentially and preclinical compressed into 1 year.

 

[Splenda88]

Great idea. While you are at it, no need for a BS/BA degree as a de facto requirement.

I learned the other day that MUSC does not require the typical prereqs (bio, chem, physics, english and math).

 

[Lawpy]

I came across this interesting post from residency reddit. Thoughts?

 

[NicMouse64]

I came across this interesting post from residency reddit. Thoughts?

It's a real problem. There are plenty of people with book smarts that don't always translate to clinical practice. The problem is we learn in a completely different way than it works in the real world.

 

[Redpancreas]

It's a real problem. There are plenty of people with book smarts that don't always translate to clinical practice. The problem is we learn in a completely different way than it works in the real world.

This is why the curriculum needs to be more integrated. We need to make stop wasting years poring over books with no application. Set us loose after a year of fundamental grounding in pathophysiology so we can realize ASAP how medicine works instead of having our bubbles burst in M3 when we find out that we’re not diagnosing rare diseases everyday and the real art is collecting the information to make what’s likely an obvious diagnosis, not using the vast knowledge you’ve collected over the last two years to make a cerebral diagnosis. I’m not saying the basic science ends after a year, I’m just saying put it in a place where students actually feel that there’s a reason to learn it.

 

[Splenda88]

This is why the curriculum needs to be more integrated. We need to make stop wasting years poring over books with no application. Set us loose after a year of fundamental grounding in pathophysiology so we can realize ASAP how medicine works instead of having our bubbles burst in M3 when we find out that we’re not diagnosing rare diseases everyday and the real art is collecting the information to make what’s likely an obvious diagnosis, not using the vast knowledge you’ve collected over the last two years to make a cerebral diagnosis. I’m not saying the basic science ends after a year, I’m just saying put it in a place where students actually feel that there’s a reason to learn it.

Are you telling me that we are not diagnosing DiGeorge syndrome every week?

Are you telling me understanding the heme synthesis pathway is not what distinguish us from PA/NP?

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

Have exams changed that much? I seem to remember lots of exam questions with "patient presents with X history and Y physical findings, what test should you order next?" Or "Here's the history, which of the following physical exam findings is likely?".

 

[NicMouse64]

Have exams changed that much? I seem to remember lots of exam questions with "patient presents with X history and Y physical findings, what test should you order next?" Or "Here's the history, which of the following physical exam findings is likely?".

The step 1 exam is the one the prevous poster was likely referring to, but step 2 is very much similar to what you are describing.

 

[Med Ed]

This is why the curriculum needs to be more integrated. We need to make stop wasting years poring over books with no application.

Example?

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

As someone hoping to match into obgyn, hard pass on having to do an IM or GS intern year first.

Have exams changed that much? I seem to remember lots of exam questions with "patient presents with X history and Y physical findings, what test should you order next?" Or "Here's the history, which of the following physical exam findings is likely?".

That’s how almost all of my exam questions in preclerkship were. Now on rotations, shelf exams are obviously like that.

 

[IMG69]

Your 4th year is extremely interesting lol it's essentially what the rest of the world does. Next year I have 4 months of a Surgical specialty, internal med specialty and then the final one is my choice.

 

[calivianya]

Example?

All of M1 and M2, most places.

This is one thing that nursing school does much better. When I was on my cardiology block in nursing school, I did 2-3 days in the classroom at my school, 2-3 days on the cardiology floor at my hospital in the mornings, and afternoons on the hospital were sort of debriefing sessions where we talked about everyone’s patients; how to diagnose their conditions; how to treat them; what the common meds were, how they worked, and what the side effects were; what things were being done wrong vs. right, etc.; and went over our plans and things like that.

It gives a strong memory hook to learn something and within the same week apply it to a patient. Much easier to say, “oh, this is what patient XYZ had” when you get to the end of block test. You get none of that when you spend two solid years in the classroom memorizing facts with no real life situations to stick the facts to until third year, so it’s no wonder a lot of third years are initially struggling to pull something they memorized two years ago without any context out of their brains when getting pimped.

 

[Lawpy]

All of M1 and M2, most places.

This is one thing that nursing school does much better. When I was on my cardiology block in nursing school, I did 2-3 days in the classroom at my school, 2-3 days on the cardiology floor at my hospital in the mornings, and afternoons on the hospital were sort of debriefing sessions where we talked about everyone’s patients; how to diagnose their conditions; how to treat them; what the common meds were, how they worked, and what the side effects were; what things were being done wrong vs. right, etc.; and went over our plans and things like that.

It gives a strong memory hook to learn something and within the same week apply it to a patient. Much easier to say, “oh, this is what patient XYZ had” when you get to the end of block test. You get none of that when you spend two solid years in the classroom memorizing facts with no real life situations to stick the facts to until third year, so it’s no wonder a lot of third years are initially struggling to pull something they memorized two years ago without any context out of their brains when getting pimped.

I'd like to think attending-led case-based PBLs help but... it's highly school dependent

 

[Med Ed]

All of M1 and M2, most places.

I was really asking for an example of something taught/learned in M1 or M2 that has zero potential applicability to clinical medicine.

 

[calivianya]

I was really asking for an example of something taught/learned in M1 or M2 that has zero potential applicability to clinical medicine.

My bad.

But related - do MD schools have any history in their classes? Because DO schools do, and that at least is completely irrelevant. Don’t really know how AT Still curing a headache by leaning on a rope made him discover OMT or whatever means anything for me personally.

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

My bad.

But related - do MD schools have any history in their classes? Because DO schools do, and that at least is completely irrelevant. Don’t really know how AT Still curing a headache by leaning on a rope made him discover OMT or whatever means anything for me personally.

Mine does. We have two military medicine history lectures and two required small group activities.

 

[VA Hopeful Dr]

My bad.

But related - do MD schools have any history in their classes? Because DO schools do, and that at least is completely irrelevant. Don’t really know how AT Still curing a headache by leaning on a rope made him discover OMT or whatever means anything for me personally.

I don't remember any of that outside of random tidbits in other lectures.

 

[Med Ed]

My bad.

But related - do MD schools have any history in their classes?

Mine did not.

 

[mvenus929]

As someone who did pediatrics, I would loathe doing either a general surgery or IM intern year as a requirement of passing medical school. Also, why would I pay tuition for that? I like the morning rounds and afternoon integration and didactics, but that would require a lot of manpower that most medical centers probably wouldn't be willing to part with. What would probably work better is just having 1-2 days per week throughout the preclinical time be spent in a clinic one-on-one with a preceptor who can get to know you and work on longitudinal improvement in H&P skills and relating those diagnoses to what you're learning in class.

 

[operaman]

You're describing what a number of schools are already doing in part. I'm a bit skeptical of compressing preclinicals much more since they've already been pretty compressed to fit into 2 years. I was in training when my institution's med school switched to a similar curriculum, and the new M2s on the wards were noticeably greener and less knowledgeable than the M3s had been from the same school and they struggled. This was at a top school so they did ok, but I do wonder how this would scale to lower tier schools where many students struggle to learn the material as it is. I would also note that the only two residents I've seen get fired came from Top 10 schools with similar curriculums and their medical knowledge and clinical acumen were big drivers of their terminations (alongside some pretty major professional shortcomings do of course).

I do like the embedding internship in M4 approach since our current system basically neuters students by locking them out of all important EMR functions. You'd have to graduate people in M3 so they have the degree, but include the M4 year as a requirement for being match certified or USMLE Step 3 certified or something. Basically this would enable modern students to function like students did 20 years ago rather than just glorified shadowing.

 

[Splenda88]

You're describing what a number of schools are already doing in part. I'm a bit skeptical of compressing preclinicals much more since they've already been pretty compressed to fit into 2 years. I was in training when my institution's med school switched to a similar curriculum, and the new M2s on the wards were noticeably greener and less knowledgeable than the M3s had been from the same school and they struggled. This was at a top school so they did ok, but I do wonder how this would scale to lower tier schools where many students struggle to learn the material as it is. I would also note that the only two residents I've seen get fired came from Top 10 schools with similar curriculums and their medical knowledge and clinical acumen were big drivers of their terminations (alongside some pretty major professional shortcomings do of course).

I do like the embedding internship in M4 approach since our current system basically neuters students by locking them out of all important EMR functions. You'd have to graduate people in M3 so they have the degree, but include the M4 year as a requirement for being match certified or USMLE Step 3 certified or something. Basically this would enable modern students to function like students did 20 years ago rather than just glorified shadowing.

A few schools have done that already. Graduates from Duke University have been doing fine.

The argument will be then. Well, Duke have high caliber students, which is a bogus argument.

 

[Lawpy]

A few schools have done that already. Graduates from Duke University have been doing fine.

The argument will be then. Well, Duke have high caliber students, which is a bogus argument.

Agreed. Being good at critical thinking and good at memorizing/regurgitating huge volumes of info are different skills. I definitely think preclinical can be compressed entirely down to 1 year and focus heavily on clinical education

 

[Matthew9Thirtyfive]

A few schools have done that already. Graduates from Duke University have been doing fine.

The argument will be then. Well, Duke have high caliber students, which is a bogus argument.

Agreed. My school has a compressed preclerkship curriculum and we do just fine.

 

[Splenda88]

@Matthew9Thirtyfive

@Lawpy

I am always baffled when even new attending try to defend the 8-yr US medical curriculum when almost everyone who has been thru US med school knows very well that the curriculum can be cut down to 5 years (2 yrs prereqs and 3 years med school). The number of years is not what differentiate from NP; it's the material covered and residency that set us apart from them.

I think it's unjust given the opportunity cost , but I am still content where I am now.