Dr. Kaitlin Heisel from UCHealth is one of nearly 200 volunteer faculty in northern Colorado. Photo: Joe Mendoza/CSU Photography

Boxley and Mason said they are excited to take part in CUs Longitudinal Integrated Clerkship, a new clinical curriculum in which students participate in comprehensive care of patients over time, maintain relationships with preceptors and evaluators, and meet core clinical competencies across multiple disciplines simultaneously.

Dr. Amy Reppert, a general and trauma surgeon at UCHealth, is the director of the new curriculum. She said the new approach is taking medical education by storm.

CU is converting completely to the new curriculum, she said. The university joins other top medical schools in helping students learn more about the patient experience and disease processes from start to finish.

Reppert and Dr. Christie Reimer now the assistant dean of the Fort Collins branch campus recruited physicians who will serve as volunteer faculty this year, and in the years to come. The response has been phenomenal, said Reppert, with nearly 200 clinicians from UCHealth stepping forward to help serve as preceptors, mentors and instructors.

The volunteer faculty or liaisons have recruited or actively engaged community practitioners interested in education, said Reppert. The energy the faculty is bringing to this project for the students is remarkable, and these liaisons are offering their time and energy to educate our students. The response has gone beyond what we imagined we would find.

Boxley said he has been impressed with the physician instructors hes met.

As a child growing up, I didnt appreciate the community that exists in Fort Collins, he said. People are kind and generous, and that extends to the medical community, based on the doctors that Ive met so far. Being a student, its resource-rich, with teachers willing to invest in you and a community thats willing to accept you learning in their midst. Northern Colorado is going to be a really good place for that, for all of us.

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Third-year University of Colorado medical students start clinical rotations in northern Colorado - Source