Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship (LInC)
A new clerkship program is beginning at Sunnybrook starting in the 2015-2016 academic year.
This different model for training for clinical clerks (third-year medical students) will see the students develop more longitudinal relationships with patients so that they become better advocates and communicators, as well as get a better sense of the patient experience through the health-care system (particularly for chronic illnesses).
Instead of following the traditional block clerkship model, which see students rotate through medical disciplines every two to eight weeks, the LInC program provides students with the opportunity to follow patients over the course of their acute care journey and beyond, should the opportunity present itself. The intent of this new clerkship model is to provide these students with a more integrated approach to the continuum of patient care.
In the LInC model, students weave in and out of each medical discipline (family medicine, surgery, obstetrics and gynecology, medicine, paediatrics, psychiatry, anesthesia, emergency medicine, ophthalmology and otolaryngology) over the course of the year. For instance, if a patient presented in the Emergency Department with abdominal pain and needed surgery, the clerk could follow the patient from the ED to the OR and onto the inpatient unit. When that patient is discharged, the student may go with them to their first follow-up appointment.
The LInC model has been used elsewhere in the world, and was piloted at St. Michael’s Hospital in Toronto this year (and is now expanding to other sites including Sunnybrook). Sunnybrook’s first cohort will include three students.
Health-care professionals along the continuum of care will be asked to help facilitate learning if their patient is being followed. Team members will be asked to allow the student to accompany the patient during this visit at the consent of the patient and to incorporate the contributions of the student who should have a comprehensive knowledge of the patient’s history.
