Clinical oncology clerkship for third-year medical students

Background. A two-week elective clerkship in clinical oncology is offered tu third-year medical students. Methods. Two students at a time participated in the rotation and spent time with attendings in a one-to-one setting in outpatient clinics in the cancer specialties. The students also attended multidisciplinary tumor boards. Grand rounds, peer review conferences, and problem-case conferences were attended by the students as well. The students met with an attending for one-hour, twice-per-week to discuss pertinent oncologic cases and problems. The exposure to clinical oncology for two weeks is intended to educate the students relative to the presentation, evaluation, treatment, prognosis, and follow-up for a variety of cancers. Results. The rotation has been highly successful as measured by its popularity and by consistently high course evaluations from the medical students. Conclusion. The overall quality of the learning experience for the rotation has been rated by the students as the highest among all courses in their four-year curriculum.