Electives and observerships, etc.

[Guest Kirsteen]

Hi there,

 

For those of you with some CaRMS experience, for CaRMS purposes, what sorts of medical experiences are considered to be "electives"? Do any of you know what the CaRMS definition of "elective" is?

 

One of the reasons I ask this is that I have the opportunity to do some elective-type work during the December holidays, and next summer, i.e., I have been invited by a doctor to observe and potentially participate in the clinical work that they do in their ward. For these to be considered official electives, would they have to be recognized in some way by either, my home medical school, the city in which I will be undertaking these experiences, or both? Also, in the event that these will not be considered electives, does CaRMS afford an area in which I could enter these experiences?

 

I'm a touch green on these sorts of issues, as you can tell.

 

Cheers,

Kirsteen

[Guest Ian Wong]

You can enter these experiences into the "Electives" section of the e-CaRMS application. e-CaRMS leaves the actual interpretation of what an elective is up to the individual applicant; there's even space provided underneath each elective for you to provide a description of your elective, if you want.

 

However, it's readily apparent from the dates of these pre-clerkship electives that they are just that, clinical experiences done prior to your clerkship rotations, and therefore aren't really as important as those electives done during and after your clerkship rotations.

 

I tend to think that the elective experiences which truly have an impact on your CaRMS application are the senior electives you do during and after clerkships. Those clinical performance on those electives are hopefully representative of your future performance as a resident, and usually should give the program directors an idea as to the level of your interest in that particular specialty.

 

To sum up then, those pre-clerkship clinical experiences/observerships can go on your CaRMS application, and you might even talk about them during your residency interviews, but don't expect them to have anywhere near the impact as your senior electives. Just my opinion.

 

Ian

[Guest Ian Wong]

Floating back to the top...

 

Ian