Organizing Clerkship Electives

[Guest HSR07]

When setting up electives, is it better to contact a supervisor before sending in all of the forms, or better to just send in the forms and leave it up to the schools? This process of setting up electives is proving to be much trickier than I imagined.

[Guest Ian Wong]

It varies with each school, but in general, everything you do should go through the Electives office first. Some schools get irritated when you set something up directly with a preceptor as they see it as "going outside their established mechanism". Going through the electives office means you get shuffled down the elective student pathway and hopefully are more likely not to miss out some paperwork step or other crucial piece of scut you need to have fulfilled in order to get that elective spot.

 

However, if you have someone particular in mind you wanted to work with, I'd both contact that individual, as well as let the Electives Office know of your intentions.

 

Ian

[Guest therealcrackers]

If these are clerkship electives at your own school, talk to the coordinators of the subject area (like the Medicine staff for, say, a respirology elective in your medicine block). If these are at another school, you can have a specific preceptor in mind, but always go through the electives office first. Be prepared to wait, and be prepared to be persistent, have a backup plan at that school in case you get a counteroffer.

[Guest nikkicell]

i would never trust the electives office of any school to do anything i really want.

when i set up my electives, i wanted to do rotations with specific people in 2 cases. for that, i emailed the staff person or the departmental secretary to make sure that i 'reserved' the rotation i wanted at the time i wanted. to do not do this would mean that i probably would not get the supervisor i wanted which can be key, like if you are playing the toronto internal game. also, radiology and derm tend to book up very far in advance everywhere.

 

So, i would contact the supervisor/department, and when you know that your elective is a go, send the electives office their forms and money. if you send in your money, and your elective you want isn't available, you don't get your money back, forcing you to do another elective at that school or losing your money

[Guest HSR07]

What if you don't know anyone at the schools you want to go to. I am also aiming for internal medicine, and I'm trying to set up Toronto and Ottawa, but I don't know anyone at these schools. If I can ask friends for suggestions of faculty, can I then just contact them myself and try to set it up? How do you know who the key people are in a department? And is it better to maybe do more subspecialty experiences because maybe it will be less busy and you're supervisor will be able to get to know you better and write you a better letter of reference? I am most interested in general internal medicine but I don't think I should do 4 electives all in GIM.