Year 2: Clinical Rotations and Professionalism

Duke‐NUS students begin their clinical rotations full‐time during their second year, a year earlier than their peers in other typical US based medical schools. Essential basic science components learnt during the first year, and clinical skills from the Practice Course become valuable when seeing patients from hospitals such as Singapore General Hospital, National Neuroscience Institute, KK Women’s and Children’s Hospital and the Institute of Mental Health.

Core Rotations

Core clerkship rotations are designed to develop students’ clinical problem‐solving skills and their ability to appropriately use resources to diagnose and treat patients. Each rotation is assessed by a Continuous Assessment , rotation specific assessments, and the NBME Subject Exams. 

The duration of each block is eight weeks and include:

• Medicine (8 weeks)
• Surgery (8 weeks)
• Pediatrics (8 weeks)
• Obstetrics and Gynecology (6 weeks), Anesthesia (2 weeks)
• Neurology (4 weeks), Orthopedics (2 weeks), Radiology (1 week), Break/ Remediation (1 week)
• Psychiatry (4 weeks), Cardiology (2 weeks), Geriatric Medicine/ Palliative Care/ Medical Oncology (1 week), Break/ Remediation (1 week)

Practice Course 2

During Practice Course 2, we extend the skills needed for the practice of medicine from the clerkships’ biological end to the BioPsychoSocioEthicoLegal spectrum. Clinical case scenarios are the cornerstone for our reasoning (cultural competence, ethical and legal analysis, and reasoning) and problem solving (communication and negotiation) skills. Standardized Patient (SP) interviews allow for practice and improvement of communication and interpersonal skills.

In addition to the NBME Shelf Exams required for the core rotations, the required standardized exams at the end of Year 2 include the Comprehensive Basic Science Exam (CBSE), Comprehensive Clinical Science Exam (CCSE) and the Y2 Clinical Performance Exam (Y2 CPX).

Contact email for Year 2: teamlead@duke-nus.edu.sg