finding rotations

[freelancewriter]

I didn't find this discussed anywhere, so here it goes.

How do med students find out about clinical rotations? Particularly visiting students?

The AAMC has an Extramural Electives Compendium for LCME schools (http://www.aamc.org/students/medstudents/electives/start.htm), but what about teaching hospitals that are more stand-alone. (Sure, there may be an affiliation with a University, but this doesn't necessarily mean that the average person can easily find rotations at non-University institutions.)

As an example, I did a Google search for palliative care rotations:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&q=palliative+care+rotation

A host of .edu addresses (med schools) appeared on the first page , along with a .org. That .org was a teaching hospital, Marshfield Clinic/Saint Joseph's Hospital in Wisconsin. Looking at their Web site, I found a list of rotations that they offer:
http://www.marshfieldclinic.org/education/residency/student/electives.asp

They mention that they are affiliated with the University of Wisconsin Medical school, and even have a link on that page to UW. I went to the UW catalog, and couldn't find a palliative care rotation mentioned anywhere:
http://med.uwisc.org/public/catalog/select_student_level.html

To top it off, the Marshfield Clinic Web site has their own application for rotations. They don't appear to charge for their application, though the UW site seems to have an application fee.

NOTE TO INTERNATIONAL/OFFSHORE STUDENTS: The Marshfield Clinic site indicates that they are unable to host international/offshore med school students:
http://www.marshfieldclinic.org/education/residency/student/eligibility.asp It offers a link to UW for such opportunities.

What gives? Is there another list outside of LCME? Are people doing Web searches (Google, Yahoo, etc.) to find rotations not affiliated with their own med school? There must be a more qualified/relevant resource than Google.

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[Vincristine]

While I'm an M3 looking for away rotations myself, here's what I know. Most of the people I know first think of the school/hospital they want to visit, then look for their information specifically. Ease of finding info varies widely from a nice bold link off the med school's homepage to having to make a number of phone calls to find someone who will talk to you and forward you information. I'd start with the school's homepage and spend some serious time investaging it before giving in and calling people.

Another good option is to start with residency info pages at different programs because they'll oftenhave links for visiting medical students (a good option especially when looking at community-based hosptial programs).

Application fees and applications also vary widely from Harvard's "we demand $75 to consider your application for a one month block and after that, if you'd like to be considered for another month, you'll have to send us another $75" to Mayo's free application but requiring a personal statement to some simplying asking for your name, proof of malpractice insurance and good standing, and what rotation you'd like to do.

 

[Seaglass]

All I know is Emergency medicine. The Society for Academic Emergency Medicine maintains a list of electives for visiting students. That said, most go about it the way the previous poster mentioned - find the school you want to go to, and see what they have available. Many times rotations are rather informal. You can just contact Medical Education at the hospital you want to go to and ask if they can set up what you want.

Casey

 

[sunny9505]

If you go to the AMA/AOA sites, you can look for physicians by specialty. You could do this and then get their contact info and contact them directly. If I wanted hospital info, I would do google searches. You can go thu the hospital's med ed dept or ask for a list of the docs that have priveledges there and they will mail you out a list with their info.