A strong partnership with IU Health Bloomington Hospital gives IU School of Medicine students early clinical exposure and diagnostic skills practice. A variety of third-year clerkships and fourth-year electives as well as continuing medical education events for both students and practicing physicians are also offered through this clinical facility. Physicians, residents and hospital personnel are easily accessible to medical students and enthusiastically provide informal clinical training and advice on career planning, and many local private physicians volunteer as preceptors and mentors.
Among the eight IU School of Medicine campuses outside of Indianapolis, Bloomington is unique in having a medical sciences program that educates not only medical students seeking an MD, but also undergraduate students and graduate students in various programs leading to bachelor’s, master’s, PhD and combined degrees.
The Regional Academic Health Center (RAHC) offers significant possibilities for collaboration among colleagues in other health sciences professions and with clinicians at IU Health. The $557 million IU Health Bloomington facility includes a hospital, a cancer center and other specialty centers, and a state-of-the-art simulation center.
With this facility, IU School of Medicine students stay in Bloomington for the entirety of their training, new residency programs are expanding care in the region, and opportunities for clinical research are growing.
While the primary clinical partner at IU School of Medicine–Bloomington is IU Health Bloomington Hospital, students gain clinical practice and patient care experience in other primary care, specialized care and private practice settings in the Bloomington community.