State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement

[tnedoots]

Do any faculty, students, or residents have any familiarity with the "State Authorization Reciprocity Agreement (SARA)"?
My school has given us a list of ten states we cannot do aways at stating the our state hasn't ratified it and we therefore cannot, even for no credit, do an away at any of those ten states. The explanation that admin gives makes no sense, and at least a few programs in some of the states say that it shouldn't be a problem.

Any insight is helpful.

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[gutonc]

My insight is that, whether your school administration is "technically right" about this or not, going against the policy is a great way to find yourself on academic probation, which is a great way to not match into a semi-competitive specialty like EM.

 

[tnedoots]

My insight is that, whether your school administration is "technically right" about this or not, going against the policy is a great way to find yourself on academic probation, which is a great way to not match into a semi-competitive specialty like EM.

I appreciate the response. I don't think I said anything about "going against the policy" though. I am just asking if this is anyone knows anymore about this agreement as the explanation provided to me by the administration does not make sense.

 

[CajunMedic]

Never heard of it before. Even looking at their website, I can't figure out how it affects medical education. Everything is so obtunded and full of legalese.

 

[deleted109597]

Maybe you should ask your administration to explain it better. Because none of us knows what's going on in their mind.
And in the end, even if their explanation is dumb, or outright wrong, you're risking not graduating to go against them. Most of them aren't keen to being "shown the light" either.
If anything, ask your local medical student section of the AMA, or specialty society. They might have a better response, and you can get them to push on admin, and not you.

 

[DissocativFugue]

If you find that they do not have a really good reason or seem like they don't really know the rules, I would contact your ombudsman for help only if you have to. You probably don't want to die on this sword, but if you have no other options, use your administration to help you navigate this.


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[tnedoots]

Thanks to everyone who has responded!
Was it something in my original post that inferred I am trying to go against the administration of my school? I am not sure why that comment keeps coming up but I am definitely not inferring/conferring/hinting or anything else about doing that.

The administration has not, despite many different students asking, provided an explanation that makes sense. I have no expectation that anyone on SDN would be able to figure out what's going on in their mind. Contacting the AMA rep is appealing but I doubt that will change anything before away season is over.

As pointed out, the SARA website is confusing at best. Apparently there are only 3 states in the country that aren't part of SARA: Ma, Ca, and Fl (SARA States & Institutions | nc-sara). However, the list of states at which we are not allowed to rotate includes 10 that are not any of those 3 states. The 10 states seem as though they were chosen randomly. I'm sure there is logic and am looking for that logic. I can't think of a reason why my school would be the only school in the US to have a policy based on SARA that disallows students the opportunity to rotate in certain states. If anyone has any idea what that logic is based on experience with the policy as a student or faculty, I'd appreciate some insight from your experience.

I think my original post must have been poorly written. Hopefully, this makes more sense. I'm just trying to leverage the power of the community to gain a little knowledge. And to help anyone else who may have the same question in the future.

 

[deleted109597]

I don't know that your school is the only one. There's no harm in asking them "hey, are there other schools that do this?" or "Is there something specific that makes you guys want to do this?"
But pushing the issue isn't the answer.