Record Number of Medical Students Will Attend 5-Month Training

JABSOM medical students who will attend the 5-month-long program working in communities islandwide. Photo courtesy of University of Hawai‘i.

Thirty-nine medical students have signed up for this year’s longitudinal clerkship program. The 5-month-long training stint for future doctors is an alternative track for third-year medical students at the University of Hawai‘i’s John A. Burns School of Medicine (JABSOM).

Participating students will be working directly with people in the community statewide under the guidance of six faculty physicians called “preceptors.” The students are paired with preceptors–who are frequently MDs volunteering their time–at medical offices, clinics or hospitals on Oʻahu, Hawaiʻi Island, Maui and Kauaʻi.

Twenty-four of the 39 students are stationed on Oʻahu this year and 15 are residing and training on the neighbor islands during their five-month assignments.

“The longer-term training in those communities allows the medical students to get intensive one-on-one mentoring from the physician they are paired with,” said Dr. Jill Omori, JABSOM’s director of medical education. “The students also get to witness the continuity of care (the care of a patient over a period of time, often including ongoing health management), which is an important concept in healthcare today.”

Dr. Nash Witten (JABSOM MD 2017) wrote of his JABSOM training experience on Hawaiʻi Island: “This rural clinical experience would not be possible without the tremendous support of community physicians, community donors and logistical support from the JABSOM Office of Medical Education. We need a car to get to clinics, so JABSOM ships our cars over. We need a place to stay, and neither would be possible without support from local donors who help to offset these costs.”

Clinical training for all JABSOM medical students is a partnership with the community and faculty are based (and provide physician services) at a variety of community healthcare facilities. These include: The Queen’s Health Systems, Hawaiʻi Pacific Health (Kapi‘olani Medical Center for Women and Children, Pali Momi Medical Center, Straub Medical Center), Kuakini Medical Center, Kaiser Permanente, the U.S. Department of Veteran’s Affairs/Tripler Army Medical Center, the Physician Center at Mililani, Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific, Shriners Hospital for Children, Wahiawā General Hospital, the Hawaiʻi State Department of Health and multiple other sites.