Carle Illinois College of Medicine (CI MED) is expanding its clinical training footprint and its students’ service to patients in central Illinois with a new clinical training site in Bloomington-Normal. Starting in March 2023, the Carle BroMenn Medical Center will host rotations of CI MED students who will provide care for patients in McLean County and the surrounding area.
Carle Illinois’ curriculum emphasizes early hands-on clinical experience. CI MED students spend their main clinical year immersed in rotations under the supervision of Carle Health clinicians, currently held at Carle Foundation Hospital in Urbana. The new clinical site allows students the option to complete either a five- and ten-week clinical clerkship at Carle BroMenn in one of five clinical areas: internal medicine, obstetrics, neurology, surgery, or psychiatry. While the pediatrics clerkship will be offered only at Carle Foundation Hospital, all other clerkships at Carle BroMenn are designed to mirror the training and experience CI MED students are currently offered at Carle Foundation Hospital.
Faculty members and clerkship directors have been recruited to supervise Carle Illinois students during their rotations in Bloomington-Normal. Carle BroMenn Chief Medical Officer and Clinical Site Director Dr. John Wieland says these seasoned clinicians are excited to partner with Carle Illinois in mentoring this generation of physician innovators. “We are well equipped to focus on developing them as well-trained physicians by exposing them to traditional medical education experiences in their core curriculum,” said Wieland. Carle BroMenn is a referral site for several smaller hospitals, allowing students to gain valuable experience in an environment that typifies modern health care delivery in the U.S.
Carle Illinois Assistant Dean for Curriculum Victoria Richards said the Carle BroMenn Medical Center clinical site will benefit both the community and Carle Illinois students. “Carle Illinois’ presence at the BroMenn facility is going to widen the field and have individuals in the community recognize that Carle Illinois is part of Central Illinois.” Richards says training at BroMenn gives students a broader sense of the central Illinois community and the local flavor, including the community’s health care needs.
At any given time, five CI MED students will be assigned a clinical rotation at the Bloomington-Normal medical center, with each student concentrating on a different medical specialty. CI MED Clinical Skills and Phase 2 Clerkship Director Dr. Christopher Nelson says this means medical students who complete clerkships at Carle BroMenn have the rare opportunity to train in an environment in which they get one-on-one attention from their supervising physicians. Over the course of their major clinical year, some 30-40 CI MED students are expected to complete at least one clerkship at BroMenn in the clinical site’s first year.
Wieland says regardless of their career plans, CI MED students can apply the experience they gain at BroMenn to advance medical practice in the future. “By providing a solid foundation of clinical medical exposure, they can weave this experience into their unique engineering and innovation curriculum to enhance their future abilities to improve medical care and the quality of life for their patients and the communities where they will serve,” Wieland said. “We look forward to creating lasting relationships with CI MED students and showcasing our cities in hopes of recruiting future physician innovators to practice locally.”
Students who participate in clerkships at Carle BroMenn will continue to see patients on a regular basis at the Family Medicine Continuity Clinic at Carle Health’s facility on Curtis Road.
Carle BroMenn Medical Center became affiliated with Carle Health in 2020. It is a 200-bed Level II trauma center with medical residency programs in neurosurgery, family medicine, and clinical pastoral education.