Community-based Clinical Education
Liberty University College of Osteopathic Medicine (LUCOM) uses a community-based clinical education model for the third- and fourth-years of medical education. Our clinical partners work in conjunction with LUCOM to provide excellent clinical experiences in a diversity of sites located throughout Virginia, and clinical sites in Illinois, Texas, and Mississippi. As a Liberty osteopathic medical student, you will be provided with inpatient clinical experiences at hospitals and medical centers, as well as outpatient experiences at hospital-based clinics, free-standing clinics, and physicians’ offices. The availability of elective opportunities will maximize your career options and enrich your undergraduate medical education as you consider potential specialties.
As a third-year student-doctor, your core rotations are designed to expose you to the breadth of medical knowledge, and to standardize the learning experience in this year. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to perform clinical rotations at our core sites provided below.
As a fourth-year student-doctor, you will participate in clinical educational experiences designed to prepare you for Graduate Medical Education (GME) following medical school. There is flexibility in selecting clinical experiences in multiple specialties. Clinical rotations are comprised of clinical experiences in which the specialties, locations, and preceptors are identified by student-doctors and may be completed at affiliated site with LUCOM-credentialed preceptors. This flexibility will allow you to set up a fourth-year schedule time to optimize preparation for GME in the specialty of your choice and to gain important experience in the field prior to residency interviews. Additional elective opportunities are permitted at non-affiliated sites in accordance with guidelines found in the LUCOM Clinical Training Manual.
LUCOM has an extensive list of credentialed clinical faculty, view the roster by specialty.
For more information about Core Rotation Sites and Elective Sites, email the Office of Clinical Rotations at LUCOMClinicalEducation@liberty.edu.
Core Rotation Sites
Illinois (Hospital Sisters Health Systems)
Illinois (SSM Health)
Mississippi (Baptist Memorial Health Care)
Texas (LifePoint Heath)
Virginia
- Bon Secours Mary Immaculate Hospital – Newport News, Va.
- Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center – Portsmouth, Va.
- Bon Secours Southside Medical Center – Petersburg, Va.
- Centra Bedford Memorial Hospital – Bedford, Va.
- Centra Lynchburg General Hospital – Lynchburg, Va.
- Centra Southside Community Hospital – Farmville, Va.
- Centra Virginia Baptist Hospital – Lynchburg, Va.
- Chesapeake Regional Medical Center – Chesapeake, Va.
- Sentara Halifax Regional Hospital – South Boston, Va.
- Sovah Danville Regional Medical Center – Danville, Va.
- Sovah Memorial Hospital of Martinsville and Henry County – Martinsville, Va.
- Twin County Regional Healthcare – Galax, Va.
- Wythe County Community Hospital – Wytheville, Va.
International Rotations
With LUCOM, you have the opportunity to participate in international rotations during the OMS-IV year provided that the experience meets our established academic standards. Refer to the Clinical Training Manual for information on the standards and requirements for international rotations.
Apply for international rotations including Samaritan’s Purse rotations and student-found opportunities:
Apply for International Rotations
Elective Sites
OMS-IV student-doctors have the option to do audition rotations at institutions other than our Core Hospital Affiliates by submitting an Affiliation Agreement Request.
The Office of Affiliations will only accept agreement requests that are submitted via email. Download the Affiliations Agreement Form above, complete, and email to LUCOMAffiliations@liberty.edu.
Submitting an affiliation agreement request does not guarantee that we will be able to finalize an agreement with the requested institution. New agreement requests may take 4-6 months or longer to process. You should plan to have backup rotations in place with institutions we are currently affiliated with in case the Office of Affiliations is unable to come to agreeable terms with the institution or it takes longer than 4-6 months to process.
All email correspondence regarding affiliation agreements should be sent to LUCOMAffiliations@liberty.edu. Do not email individual staff members regarding affiliation agreements.
Elective Site Payments
Per LUCOM policy, you as a student-doctor are responsible for all fees associated with clinical rotations that occur away from the Core Rotation sites. If an away site requires that an administrative fee be paid by the COM, the student will pay this additional cost to the COM, who will then arrange to send payment to that specific site.
Submit Rotation Site Payment
Letters of Recommendation
As LUCOM student-doctors continue in their clinical education, the season for Letters of Recommendation (LoR) will soon be here. The Electronic Residency Application Service (ERAS®) is a service of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) and consists of MyERAS for applicants, Dean’s Office Workstation (DWS) for medical schools, Program Director’s Workstation (PDWS) for training programs and the ERAS Letter of Recommendation Portal (LoRP) for LoR Authors (LoRA).
Each clinical adjunct faculty is asked to review the following documents: