Many students are mistaken when Universities tell them that we don't offer clerkship or you must complete all your clerkships before doing electives.... just because they don't know the difference.... so I am creating a webpage just for basic terms!
Electives: Any optional ward rotation done... clinical electives in usually final year of medical school in Pakistan and others and in pre-intern year in India... research electives can be done anytime! These includes rotations like radiology, cardiac surgery, chest medicine... that are not compulsory! Mostly US/ UK electives are done to get good reference/ letter for your future job/ training positions.
Observership: Any ward rotation in which you observe/watch the attendings, residents, fellows or other medical students but you are not allowed to touch/examine the patient yourself or participate in any sort of activity, though you can watch everyone doing everything... considered to be a passive form of learning as compared to electives! You can also get a letter/ reference from observerships but generally people consider reference letter from electives experience to be better than reference letter from observerships; though I personally believe a very good observership letter is better than an ordinary electives letter. If you get a chance to chose one out of two... I recommend electives!
Clerkships/ Core Clerkships: These are the compulsory ward rotations that you usually in your 3rd year of medical school. These include all the basic compulsory ward rotations of general specialties like Medicine, Surgery, Gynae-Obs, Paeds etc.... when you do your clerkships you don't have any prior clinical experience(that's why Universities usually don't offer clerkships) but when you do electives... you have completed your clerkships(as you can't do final year rotations before doing the basic rotations in 3rd year... Isn't that right?)... and when Universities demand you have completed clerkships... that does not mean you should have graduated(then you are no more qualified for electives) or completed all the electives of your entire medical school curriculum.... it just means that you have completed the basic ward rotations of medicine, surgery, obs-gynae, paeds etc.
Sub-Internship: It is a type of clinical elective(final year rotation) in which you have almost all the responsibilities of an intern but you don't write orders, lab test etc yourself or... have to do so after discussing with chief resident or attendings... under their supervision... so it means more responsibility... thus it is generally considered better learning experience as compared to electives... because you don't sit, assist and observe as a student but work almost like an intern... it is generally very rarely given to international students but if you get one... my advice is.... never miss it!!!
Internship: In India, internship year is the last year of medical school. In Pakistan, UK and some other countries, Internship is referred as "House Job" but it is done after graduation from medical school. Now Internship in US is like the latter(you do it after medical school, not during medical school or last year of medical school )... in short, the first year of residency is called Internship. So that means that residency of Internal Medicine means you work as an intern for one year and then 2 more years of residency... similarly in Radiology... you do 4 years of Radiology residency after one year of internship... total 5 years... as far as I know all the specialties have to complete one year of internship...
One interesting point to note is IMGs from India, have to work as intern two times, once in India during medical school and then in US in first year of residency....
For people of Pakstan on a funny note... please don't consider US residency to be a US house job... I have heard many people saying house job in US is of 3-5 years; house job/ internship is always of one year... let it be US, Pakistan or India...
What you do after internship/house job in US is specialty training just like 4-5 years of PG training of Pakistan... e.g in Internal Medicine, in Pakistan you do one year house job, then 4 years of PG Training after which you become a Internist(IM specialist) and in US, you do one year internship(house job) and then 2 years of residency after which you become a Internist.
Residency: It is the training in the specialty of your choice e.g Internal Medicine, Surgery, Radiology etc... just like PG training or post-graduate training of Pakistan... though in Pakistan, PG training is 4-5 years for most specialties... in US it varies from specialty to specialty...
Fellowship: It is a sub-specialty training. Like in IM, it would be Cardiology, Hematology etc.... In Radiology it would be Abdominal Radiology, Interventional Radiology etc.
Going through the following link might also be helpful.
one simple thing.... core
one simple thing.... core clerkships are generally compulsory and electives are not compulsory...
My opinion!
Dear andy!
I think all our ward duty we do during our 2nd year to final years are core clerkships, coz we do mostly basic non-invasive duties. in US too, core clerkships deal more with history, examination and pimping. When we pass our exams we ascend to more responsible training in internship. that is equivalent to electives in USA. But in India, during our internship year we call the rotations as electives: 'we have to choose and do two 15 days rotataion among anesth, radio, psych, skin.. MCI calls these as electives. But USA calls all the final year as electives'. So when referring to USA, we also call our whole internship year as elective duration. The word elective means to choose as all US studenst choose the type of subject and duration of electives for their whole final year! (with some restriction as to minimum subjects type and duration)
And andy, best of luck for final profs. and do post that journal list asap. i also need it, have 2 articles near ready to publish. i'l be indebted!
Best Wishes
assalamu alaikum brother
thanks a lot for this information#..i m a freqent silent visitor to this site ... really it helps me a lot . thanks a lot
best ragards
abid
.
first of all my sincere thanks for such an enlightening website..never read through any website more informative than this. i m a medical graduate( internship completed) from china,i have cleared my mci screening and awaiting my registration with medical council of india. wat am i elgible to apply for please let me know coz i m getting a bit confused with all the terms.
Thanks a lot for your kind
As far as I understand, as u graduate u r no more eligible for elective but u can certainly do observerships and externships...
helo umarbhai ur website is
Thanks a lot for your kind
hey hello... am stuck in a
hey hello...
am stuck in a strange situation here..i want to do electives 7months after my internship in india[in mean time i planned for step1] still as a student cos wantedly postponed my graduation and so i'll be graduated a year later than the actual time...so will that affect my profile and how can i justify that during my interviews? is it worth taking that risk for the sake of clinical experience?
i wud be really grateful if somebody helps me out in this..
thanks in advance..
i think its ok to do
its ok if you want to do ur
and sure 3 month delaying of internship for gaining clinical experience will definitely help you in residency application. so basically its fruitful.. its not only the clinical experience you get but many things allied with it:
1. ur CV for residency is strengthened
2. u have a chance of getting good LORs for residency
3. u have a chance of getting into research while working in electives itself
4. u have an opportunity of making a good rapport with ur attendings (under whom u do the elective training) and can later get attached with them for research which will again help in ur residency application.
i hope this answers your questions and doubts.. good luck.
okay that was useful but my
so now again is that worth taking that risk for the sake electives? i've already made up my mind but juss wanted it to be more clear and transparent...
Electives are useful. U will
hello am a final yr student
am a final yr student and am thinkin for taking clerkship next year . but when i visited the site, i got confused by these electives. i wanna know wats the difference between them ? which is more important for later pg in a us university? and finally when do we have do them??? plz someone help n pull me outta this misery!!!
thanks
clerkships are your rotations
thank u umar bhai!! so if
it depends upon your personal
really upset.
ASA.. im final year student(kemcolian).. i wanna do electives in california but im just confused when i see long list of universities offering electives but r really expensive.. i can go 4 electives b4 september.. plz help me out 4rm where to start so that i can do electives in california.. im really upset.. thinking am i late 4 electives?? i hope ull help me in sorting this out
regards
XYZ
try places like ucsf, ucsd,
sir i'm right now in 2nd yr
Its requirement vary from
urgent advice needed please!!
I need your advice regarding the electives, my university has an affiliation with a good medical school in US that usually does not offer electives to international students but those from the affiliated ones, so I applied for it, and I didn't know that the acting internships are better than the electives, so basically I chose one month of acting internship in internal medicine and another month on either cardiology or gastroenterology, I have very little time to submit a new application so I am thinking of doing 2 months of acting internship instead of one acting internship and another elective, so please tell me what you think!
I will be spending around 6 months of electives in the US, so I thought that if I secure the acting internships from the affiliated university and then I can do electives on the other 4 months as they are easier to get ...
I am also wondering about another thing, there are three acting internships offered by this university, the first one is at the university hospital, the second is at a well reputed tertiary care hospital and the the third one is in a veterans affairs hospital, both the veterans affairs and the tertiary care hospital have night calls every fifth night, so is there any difference where you get the acting internship whether in a university hospital or tertiary care or veterans affairs ? and is it better to have the LOR from a university staff doctor than from veterans affairs or tertiary care hospital?!
please let me know what you think, I have very little time to submit a new application with any modifications!
thanks in advance brother .
Thanks for your kind words.
thank u so much...
I am a 3rd year student doing
Please visit the following
Hi...The information is
Please do reply.Thank you.
Thanks a lot for your kind
actually bhai in table of
Best Regards
Sufyan Sadiq
I think you can apply to
Electives
I am doing my Internship in India. It is about to be over by end of Mar,2011. I want to apply for Electives following my Internship. My date of Graduation from college dat is Date of receiving the certificate is Dec,2011. I can get a letter from my dean saying my graduation is in Dec,2011. would my application be accepted following my internship for electives? if not, what according to you should I go (for better than observership)? And what does Externship mean and what is its value?
You have to do electives
Hi umar, Im an IMG(pre
Im an IMG(pre intern).
Your site is really helpful,I want to know what is externship and how different is it from electives?. and as you said clerkships are essential,what is the time when you can do it. I have already finished my final year and about to begin my internship in april 2011. So please answer in terms of:
1. whether I can still do my clerkships ?or they can be done only in 3rd yr?
2. Can electives be done anytime,I mean after internship,/during internship?
3.Again,what are externships?Is it possible to go for externships during internship in India without delaying your year of completion. What I want to ask is ,whether there are institutes in India(even if selected) who allow a combination of intern and externship within the same year?
4. Lastly I want to confirm whether observerships are only possible during medical undergrad time? For someone like me who has finished final year, can I still pursue them or is it not done?
What is a selective? I am
What is a selective? I am getting a selective at a big university for 2 weeks and an elective of the same department's sub-specialty for 2 weeks. Is it advisable to take it?
Harvard clerkship / electives
visa sucess rate for mbbs students in doing mph
Recently i got married to a girl she completed her b.tech.Both are trying to go US.As i did mbbs i want to do mph.she wants to do ms.I want to know who has higher rate of success to get visa so that other can go as dependent.
help
i shall b very thankful to u for this
i am intersted in research programs n hav contacted a fewbut most require letter of recommendations from the teacher (online or thru email)
and i dont think any of my teacher uses emails n all i can get LOR from them on paper but online it would b difficult
what should i do in this situation
regards
hi i am a student from
hi i am a student from india..idid my internhip a yr ago i want to take up usmle..but have no idea wher to start...ther r so many things on ur web site i don knw wher to start ,,
i have applied for id verification yet only
will starting this late wil b a tabbo on my cv...? one ful year of dedicated work can get me through.....plz pz help umar bhai..
Clinical Electives in Ophthalmology
Thank you very much for a very helpful site for prospective doctors and professionals. Jazak'Allah for your countless efforts! :)
I have a few queries if someone can help clear them out for me.
I will be applying for electives in my 5th year, without giving my Step 1. Having said that, my primary interests include opthalmology and surgery.
1. I am confused as to find a good clinical elective for opthalmology, preferrably sth that encompasses a bit more work than an observership (which is likely to be the case for sth like opthalmology).. any suggestions and advices? the most established I know of is the John Hopkins elective, but like I said, clinical is what I am hoping for..
2. I know a few programmes providing subinternships for surgery. However, not many from my university have gone for surgery subinternships. If someone has had an experience and would like to guide me in so, it would be veryy helpful!
Thank you so much!! :)
Guide me
Sir I have just 5 more months left for my completion of my internship..jus planned to do usmle...but I haven't started anything till date..not even single step given...no toefl...should start everything from scratch..can I think bat electives now...am I too late..is there any chance of me getting into elective with 5 months time???
@ evry1
bhai m getting a bit confused abt dese terms ..our clinical postings in India started frm my 2nd year (3rd sem).. v had all postings ranging frm med, surg, obgy to radio, paeds, ent ortho acc 2 d academic year.. (but for med, obgy, surg, paeds - tho v had them as subjects in pre-internship year, v had postings ritefrm 2nd year)
after dis v'l hav our postings again in internship,i.e, next year... so which of dese are core clerkships n which r electives???