Just Some LIC Pearls, Livin' in an IM World: What Traditional Clerkships Can Learn from the Longitudinal Model

Longitudinal integrated clerkships (LICs) are increasingly prevalent in medical schools around the world. LICs have demonstrated improved learning outcomes, and when created to foster workforce retention, lead to more students choosing careers in primary care. While large-scale curriculum reform shifting from traditional internal medicine clerkships to LICs can be daunting, there are multiple best practices from the LIC model that clerkships can adopt to improve curricula and ultimately student outcomes. The workshop presenters direct three LICs across two sites at an institution that recently shifted the entire clinical year to an all-LIC model during for the 2022-2023 academic year. In this workshop, presenters will share experience and outcomes with two main components of the LIC model that clerkship directors can easily adopt within their existing curricula: clerkship concentrations and panel patients. Concentrations and environment within the LIC year may influence career choice, so each LIC carries a theme: advocacy, health equity, patient and population health, quality and safety, and inquiry. Presenters will explore four LIC concentration assignments for inquiry-themed LICs (including outcomes data) that can be easily adopted to foster clinical curiosity during the clerkship. An additional defining characteristic of LICs is their longitudinal nature. Participants will apply the longitudinal panel-patient concept to their existing clerkship to increase patient-centeredness and empathy for those navigating the health care system.