Stritch School of Medicine is the medical school affiliated with Loyola University Chicago. It is located at the heart of the Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Illinois. The medical campus includes Foster G. McGaw Hospital, Cardinal Bernardin Cancer Center, the Loyola Outpatient Center, the Loyola University Center for Health and Fitness along with other administrative buildings and departments that branch off from the hospital. While the Loyola University hospital, outpatient clinic and satellite sites serve as the main places of teaching, the Edward Hines Veterans Administration (VA) hospital is within walking distance and also serves as a teaching hospital for the Stritch School of Medicine.Stritch grants Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degrees to its graduates. Receiving a diploma requires successful completion of all coursework plus passing the U.S. Medical Licensing Exam Step 1, Step 2CS, and Step 2CK.CourseworkStritch uses a unique curriculum as its approach to medical education. The first two years are done in blocks, with one class being the focus of each block. The first year includes Molecular Cell Biology and Genetics, anatomy, physiology and immunology as its four main blocks. Second year includes Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Mechanisms of Human Disease (Pathology, Microbiology) and Behavioral Science, with the three latter classes being woven through three blocks concurrently. Third year is a year of required clerkships including Medicine, Surgery, Psychiatry, Family Medicine, Pediatrics, Obstetrics/Gynecology, and Neurology. Fourth year students take two required subinternships, which are wards and intensive care, along with a required emergency medicine clerkship and many other elective clerkships.
