Caribbean Clinicals - Affiliate Hospitals

[Boilermaker]

I am considering caribbean medical schools, and was reading about affiliate hospitals. Can you pretty much do clinicals at any of the hospitals or is that a battle yet again? The main reason is I want to do clinical rotations close to family members. I noticed on SABA's website they had an affiliate with a St. Louis hospital, and that is where I want to do rotations at because I know physicians there and family is there. The hosptial is very close to my house. At ROSS and SGU I didn't notice any affiliations with St. Louis, this is making me consider SABA. Unless of course there are hospitals that arn't listed on ROSS and SGU's websites. I feel that if I got in the St. Louis thing also, I would be able to make more contacts and have a better shot at residency by getting to know more physicians in my area. Please help me out, and tell me if I have bad or good rationale for this issue.

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[Winged Scapula]

Moving to the Caribbean Forum where you will get more responses...

 

[howelljolly]

Hospital affiliations are painfully dynamic. They can change on a week-to-week basis. So, the hospital affilations that a school reports now, may not be there in 2 years when you start clinicals.

In looking at hospital affiliations, you also need to find out. Which rotations would you be allowed to do there? More often than not, just a few. How are they certified to teach in that particular specialty? Directly, indirectly by a cross-cover specialty, indirectly by off-site academic affiliation, MD, DO? Do these details matter to you? That depends on your paticular case.

Some hospitals have specific requirements for their Carib students. So at some point in your carreer you might find that you are disqualified from rotating at a particular hospital at that particular time, or forever. These requirements include, but are not limited to...

-Step1 minimum score

-having completed one or more specific core rotations (or, all cores)

-having completed one or more specific core rotations at that particular hospital (i.e. must have done medicine or surgery there to do anything else)

The list goes on...

Also, getting your school to put you in a hospital of your choice may be easier said than done. This is a factor of (among other things) how close you are to graduation, your academic record, and how tight you are with your clinical coordinator. There are many students, and limited spots. And some spots are more popular than others... so competition can be pretty stiff.

food for thought

 

[Tigerz_Fan]

St. Louis actually has two hospitals that have Carib students rotate through. St. Mary's and St. John's Mercy. St. Mary's is the main rotation site, but St. John's has had Carib students in the past...

 

[RussianJoo]

Hospital affiliations are painfully dynamic. They can change on a week-to-week basis. So, the hospital affilations that a school reports now, may not be there in 2 years when you start clinicals.

In looking at hospital affiliations, you also need to find out. Which rotations would you be allowed to do there? More often than not, just a few. How are they certified to teach in that particular specialty? Directly, indirectly by a cross-cover specialty, indirectly by off-site academic affiliation, MD, DO? Do these details matter to you? That depends on your paticular case.

Some hospitals have specific requirements for their Carib students. So at some point in your carreer you might find that you are disqualified from rotating at a particular hospital at that particular time, or forever. These requirements include, but are not limited to...

-Step1 minimum score

-having completed one or more specific core rotations (or, all cores)

-having completed one or more specific core rotations at that particular hospital (i.e. must have done medicine or surgery there to do anything else)

The list goes on...

Also, getting your school to put you in a hospital of your choice may be easier said than done. This is a factor of (among other things) how close you are to graduation, your academic record, and how tight you are with your clinical coordinator. There are many students, and limited spots. And some spots are more popular than others... so competition can be pretty stiff.

food for thought

maybe the unestablished new or very low tier med schools have dynamic affiliated hospital lists but the big schools have pretty stable hospital lists... SGU's list hasn't changed in a very long time and if it had it's only for the better i.e. new hospitals have been added, and only hospitals that put their students in danger of not being able to get licensed in the future are dropped.

Also most hospitals only require you to pass the USMLE to do a clinical rotation there.. very few require a min gpa or a step1 score. some hospitals like the ones in NYC don't even require a passing step1 score to be able to start your rotations..