Thoughts on Kaiser's curriculum

[premed101010]

What is the general consensus on Kaiser SOM's curriculum? It seems a little rushed, and I might be understanding it wrong, but it seems like they want students to do most of their clerkships/rotations during their second year, WHILE they're still in the preclinical phase. Not to mention - doing EM in year 2 and Step 1 in the beginning of year 3. Thoughts? Am I completely misinterpreting the curriculum?

---

Members don't see this ad.

 

[rdyotz]

I learned alot haha. The no lectures thing kinda threw me off, but here are the main points I gathered:

- Contrary to popular opinion, this is not a pipeline into the Kaiser health system. Graduates of this program are free to practice wherever they want.
- There are no lectures and no formal lecture hall. If you see the construction update on their website, it is literally just one building with a few floors. The school is located right next to a Kaiser research building. I brought up concerns about having administrative support, for example if we have issues with classes, and they assured us that all administrative support will be in the research building next door.
- No lectures means that the entire curriculum is case-based. There were concerns from others about STEP prep, and the presenter just answered that they will prepare us accordingly. This was what I was iffy about, since I know med schools have gradually shifted focus from lecture only to lecture + case-based learning, but these are schools that have been established for a while, so I didn't know how this would work for a brand new school with literally no lectures.
- 8 individuals per "classroom", and you will likely stay with these 8 individuals throughout your entire medical career. So I guess if you don't like anyone, you're screwed. Each "classroom" will have a clinician and PhD present to facilitate discussion.
- Research project is required. No research facilities in the main medical school building but they have MOU's with Caltech and nearby schools such as Caltech and USC. I believe also with UCLA and LMU for certain degree programs. With the horrendous traffic in LA, this would be an inconvenience if you had to travel everyday after class to go to lab.
- No pre screen for secondary.
- There are grants for living expenses (huge surprise, cause living in LA is very expensive!) as well as free tuition for the first 5 classes for all 4 years (huge plus)
- Small class ~50. From what I got they are looking for well-rounded applicants with lots of life experience.
- Start at 8 am daily, classroom ends at noon. Lots of free time in the afternoons.

Ask lots of questions! If anyone has anything else to add, please do!

This was posted in the Kaiser specific forum (2019-2020 Kaiser Permanente)

Not that it offers much insight, but it was from a presentation by Kaiser at the person's school.

My own personal thoughts:
It seems like Kaiser is going to focus more on early clinical immersion to augment classroom learning. Their sample phase schedules show classes during 2nd year are only Mondays & Thursdays. I have no clue how it will affect step scores.

This is likely a highly fluid schedule, and will likely change before matriculation, as well as after classes start.

 

[Lucca]

It’s interesting certainly. Doing clerkship earlier, at a slower pace, alongside preclinicals doesn’t seem like an inherently bad idea, may even be really good but also sounds like it could be pretty challenging. With the current Step 1 climate the early clerkship time will be seen by some as getting in the way of Step prep unfortunately (time blocked for clinic is time not mashing the spacebar) although I think the earlier the clinical exposure the better to help you narrow down what you want to do and help build basic clinical skills/knowledge (which is why it’s good it starts with primary care/IM)

No blocked time for research which I suppose makes sense given the priorities of the school. Seems like a Halfway between a super accelerated Vandy/HMS/Michigan type curriculum and a traditional WashU type curriculum.

 

[907914]

It’s interesting certainly. Doing clerkship earlier, at a slower pace, alongside preclinicals doesn’t seem like an inherently bad idea, may even be really good but also sounds like it could be pretty challenging. With the current Step 1 climate the early clerkship time will be seen by some as getting in the way of Step prep unfortunately (time blocked for clinic is time not mashing the spacebar) although I think the earlier the clinical exposure the better to help you narrow down what you want to do and help build basic clinical skills/knowledge (which is why it’s good it starts with primary care/IM)

No blocked time for research which I suppose makes sense given the priorities of the school. Seems like a Halfway between a super accelerated Vandy/HMS/Michigan type curriculum and a traditional WashU type curriculum.

If it helps, I know UChicago has dedicated patient/linear clerkship and dedicated research time along with regular M-F classes during their full 2 year preclinical section. So it is not unheard of to have early clinical.

 

[Lucca]

If it helps, I know UChicago has dedicated patient/linear clerkship and dedicated research time along with regular M-F classes during their full 2 year preclinical section. So it is not unheard of to have early clinical.

Almost every school iirc has some form of longitudinal, early clinical exposure. My impression is that this is a full clerkship to be done throughout M1, which may or may not be more substantial. Hard to tell from just the map

 

[994904]

Yeah I think the early clinical exposure is not unique to this curriculum especially, as previous posters point out, there are schools with longitudinal clinical exposure curriculums. But like I said in the original post to which this thread references, I was just shocked that there are no lectures/there is lots of free time. I mean I still applied to KP but I guess we won’t really know Step preparedness until the first class graduates *shrug*