Medical Students in the Anatomy Lab
College of MedicineMD ProgramStudent AffairsLearning Communities

Learning Communities

The Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine serves as a unique resource for the entire State of Washington through its four regional medical campuses at Everett, Spokane, Tri-Cities and Vancouver that engage constituents beyond city limits and into their entire geographic region. Our medical students, who are inspiring people to solve problems in challenging health care environments, are the college’s most valuable resources. In order to facilitate our students engagement throughout the state, we place students in one of four learning communities based on regional medical campus geographic location. All students spend the first two years in Spokane for their pre-clinical training and their third and fourth years at their clinical site: Everett, Spokane, Tri-Cities or Vancouver.

The Student Affairs Learning Community in the first two years in Spokane is designed to enrich the educational experience for medical students by:

  • Fostering inter-class connections and mentoring
  • Providing multi-disciplinary and inter-professional perspectives on professional identity as they transition from student to physician
  • Involving a community of mentors from various professional areas including business, nursing, pharmacy, engineering and law, as well as diverse personal experiences as a parent, patient, caretaker, volunteer and activist.
  • Providing non-evaluative learning spaces in which students further discuss important curricular topics our community of mentors

The goal is for students to not only learn from each other, but also grow as a community of future physicians who support each other, invest themselves into the local community, and have an expansive network of mentors to help guide them throughout their medical career.

In the third year, the students transition to their clinical site and continue to be supported by the amazing team at the regional medical campuses that includes the Associate Deans for Clinical Education, WSU faculty and preceptors, and administrative staff.