electives in USA

[dr_no3man]

anytime brother kareem, e7na fel 5edmah

[dr_no3man]

Besmellah,
Now I don't have much time but I want to answer a very common question. The question is:
What is the difference between these terms: elective, clerkship, externship and obsevership.
I'll start with the last one "Observership".

Obsevership: it is a rotation in the hospital you take but the only thing you can do is see and listen. You can't touch or take history from patients. So you are there but not there, something like being "invisible". It is not really helpful to count as a US clinical experience but at least it is better than nothing. FYI: program directors know what does it mean so it is just better than nothing.  But I wanna say that some people took it and was smart enough to make it something like externship  and had strong letters of recommendation through it.

Electives: they are the rotations 4th year medical student does. He choose it according to the specialty he wanna go through, you can touch the patient, you cantake history, you can do simple procedures you can do anything intern can do if you are caplable to do. I think now you know that's what I did:). During my ER rotation I tried to do almost everything my hands can reach as a med student. Of course started with doing sutures you know the first thing students like to do lol, NG tube, ET tube and abscess drainage. Also you get involved in putting differential diagnosis, workup and plan for management. It was really wonderful experience for me.

Clerkship: sometimes it has the same meaning of elective but in the school I was in, it was always preceeded by core, so core clerkship which means the first basic introductive rotations to practical medicine. I mean it means the 3rd year rotations.

Externship: As you notice elective and clerkship are for students, so there is something should be for graduates, got it? So externship is the same like electives I mean it is hands on also but for graduate people who already finished school and want to get in touch with the american system before getting to residency. Usually it is much more expensive than electives, and also very rare to find such thing in university usually you do it in private practice.

So overall for those who are still in med school and thinking about doing residency in the US,  you have a wonderful opportunity to practice medicine here and it adds a lot to your resume. On the otherhand those who are done with med school they still can find a place where they can do externship and have letters of recommendation. If they couldn't find such thing, so doing observership is better than doing nothing.

I hope I could transfere my idea.

Waiting for more questions


to be continue

[abdel7ai]

dear dr. no3man
thank you very much
i have just read the new posts of this valuable topic.
according to your suggestion of <psychiatric rotation> , in fact it is surprising , but at least it is a way to get to usa .
i think the visa will be very difficult for a surgeon to get this type of rotation, don't u think so?

your explanation about these <**-ship> is so important , thanks again..
i am searching following the steps u have written previously <aamc.org>, i think it worth to try, i may have a chance.
could i have an elective rotation <i am postgraduate> or , it is just about observership.. ?
one more question please
i want to ask about externship , should i search using google , or there is a site for it ?
thanks again ....

[3AMR]

dear abdel7ai,
this site can help u to find externship,observership or electives.
it contains many info.I HOPE IT CAN HELP.
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                                                          Amr

[dr_no3man]

@abdel7ai:
-regarding the question about visa and your current job, I'm not pretty sure about it, but you can turn around the question when it comes in this regard
-aamc: is not the right place to look for observership as that link is special for students, sure the website 3amr suggested will be much more helpful for you, this guy(digitaldoctor) is really make good job helping people. You will find there links for externship and observership.

[abdel7ai]

thank you for ur aid dear doctors .
i am looking forward to hear from u the rest of ur experience, in this forum.
i would not hesitate to ask <should I ??! > .. at least , questions and answars may be of value for our colleagues ..
thank u again. 

[crazydoctor]

thanks you sharing you experience with us  allah bless you

[dr_no3man]

@Abdel7ai: brother you know you shouldn't hesitate asking. I'm just trying to give, I don't have much but I'm sure someone will benifit from it. waiting for your questions though.
@crazydoctor: you are welcome brother, but I have to do that. It's your right to know.

Anyway, now really I don't know which part to talk about. We have now TOEFL period, application period, visa application experience or the rotations itself. Please those brothers who are following just let me know I will happy to go in any of them.
Waiting for your  feedback.

salam

To be continue in sha Allah

[3AMR]

mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
i think the application period including the TOEFL as a part of the application will be great..
when u started?how u fulfilled the requirements?...etc

??is it preferred to apply from march to september rather than from oct to feb as the american grads apply in this period OR it doesn't matter?

[dr_no3man]

Ok 3ammor, fine so in sha Allah I'll do all. During the next few days I'll be a little bit busy as I have a friend visiting me. But in sha Allah whenever I have free time I'll go on. Thanks for your interaction guys.


To be continue in sha Allah

[dr_no3man]

Ok guys, here we go again.
What I want to talk about now is the application part of my experience.
First of all, you may find in every elective application a question about your social security number. Don't bother yourself thinking how to answer it. Juest leave it empty. You have no SSN so no answer. Don't put your national ID number or passport no. All these are wrong. Then In the application I filled they were asking about my ethnecity. I felt like that's not a good question to be asked in this regard. I felt it's kind of racist question. Like are you white american, african american, hispanic or indian?!!! what is the point of such question then??
Another advice regarding your name. In most of our countries there we use long name formate like my name then dad's name then grandfather then grandgrandfather and so on. Here they don't care about all of this they just want the first and last name and sometimes middle initial. So just write the first and last name on your passport. For example if your name is Mohamed Ahmed Mahmoud Mostafa on your passport. So your name in the US will be either Mohamed Mostafa or Mohamed A Mosatafa(with middle initial).
That's it for now. gtg


To be continue in sha Allah

[3AMR]

Claquette the second time..
??is it preferred to apply from march to september rather than from oct to feb as the american grads apply in this period OR it doesn't matter?
welcome back doctor.....

[dr_no3man]

Yeah brother sorry to be late answering you. Well I didn't know that AMstudens applies during oct-feb but even if they apply during that period, they can choose anytime in their academic year to choose from. But from my experience I applied on the first six months of my internship and I helped a friend to me came after and applied on sep-february. So it's a matter of availability in the rotations you choose not the time. And I talked before I think about choosing rotations. I hope this helped bro.

Next will be about the visa experience.


to be continue in sha Allah

[3AMR]

as  we apply while being in the 6 year , we are considered undergrads..but we actually have the electives during our internships and by then we become grads according to the faculty papers..
one of my friends told me that while applying to the residency they either may ignore my elective  as they see the dates OR they may consider me a fraud and it becomes a bigger problem ...
I heard this from only one person ,is that true? do you have any further info. ?
thanks million times.

[3AMR]

i hope you are fine doctor no3man ....