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Curriculum

About the Curriculum

We collaborate with faculty, staff and students to provide a vital, dynamic curriculum mindful of the needs of a changing society. We support the curriculum through the design, implementation and evaluation of course components, and the assessment of student learning.

Clinical Skills

The Clinical Skills Program provides students with the opportunity to learn, practice, and demonstrate patient-centered clinical reasoning and communication skills.  In small group and individual learning activities, students work with simulated patients (SPs) under the guidance of clinical facilitators and educators to practice interviewing patients, performing physical exams, writing clinical notes, interpreting labratory data and images, sharing information with patients and families, making oral presentations, and communicating with other members of the healthcare team.

CCOM Rural Iowa Scholars Program (CRISP)

CRISP is a comprehensive program that continues throughout medical school. The goal is to attract, educate and inspire future rural physicians who will help Iowa meet its need for health care in rural areas of the state.

Community Health Outreach

Our Community Health Outreach (CHO) program is a student-organized and directed elective class for first and second year medical students who want to learn about the issues faced by medically underserved populations in the community.

Des Moines Campus

The Des Moines branch campus offers students opportunities to complete:

  • Their entire core clerkship year in Des Moines
  • Some or a portion of their core clerkship year in Des Moines
  • Various advanced pathway and elective rotations in Des Moines

This opportunity is optimal for students interested in emergency medicine, family medicine, internal medicine, pediatrics, psychiatry, and surgery.

Distinction Tracks

The Carver College of Medicine's Distinction Tracks offer students the opportunity to pursue scholarship outside of the medical curriculum. The tracks represent ways for our students to explore interests beyond the basic science and clinical knowledge domains.

Global Opportunities

We foster learning and service opportunities to underserved patients around the world. In a rapidly changing world of health care delivery, patients, care givers, and administrators realize that much is to be gained by learning to better serve our diverse community of patients both within and outside of the US.

Learning Communities

We designed our Learning Communities to facilitate student-to-student and faculty-to-student support and education, leadership development, and service learning activities.

Personal-Professional Compass

The purpose of the Carver College of Medicine Personal-Professional Compass program is to help medical students understand, articulate, and integrate their personal and professional values and goals as they navigate their way through the four years of medical school.

Program in Bioethics and Humanities

The Program’s mission is to increase our understanding of human health and healthcare through knowledge gained from bioethics and the medical humanities. Program faculty and staff advance this mission through teaching courses, conducting research and scholarship, and serving the Carver College of Medicine and University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics community.

Standing Education Committees

Our standing committees provide governance of admissions, the medical curriculum, student activities, and students' academic performance.