Electives

Your elective period can be an exciting time and a great opportunity to explore areas of medicine in different cultures and social settings. The elective period is six weeks, plus you may be able to attach an SSM of four weeks onto the module. You can really use this time to get involved in a specific or general part of Medicine that might be beneficial to your career later on. For example if you are interested in academia, you may wish to get involved in a research project

Electives are particularly good opportunities to explore specialised areas such as Aviation medicine or the chance to work with NASA in space medicine. These places often have long waiting lists so it's worth finding more information as early as possible.
 
So how do you get started?
Well have a look at the Medical School's handbook on Electives. This contains a large amount of extremely useful information from financial support to specific elective programs that are available. Plus there is a range of useful information on health and safety and the necessary requirements.

Important things to remember:

  1. You need to formalise set objectives for your elective and gain your senior tutors approval before the given deadline.
  2. There will be two elective briefings in the Fourth year (one in the autumn term and one in the spring) and you must attend one of these.
  3. You need to submit a report, no longer then 1200 words, within two weeks of your return.
  4. You must have ensured your insurance cover and health requirements.
  5. Plus you must have medical cover with either the Medical Defence Union [new window] or the Medical Protection Society [new window]

There are a number of resources to help you plan an elective.
Books - 'The Medics Guide to Work and Electives Around the World' - by Mark Wilson - copies are in the Library and available from Denise Syndercombe Court (y.d.syndercombe-court@qmul.ac.uk)

Websites

www.electives.net
Website access is free, but you need to be a member of the MDU, which is free whilst you are a medical student. A good website with plenty of information.

www.medical-electives.com
basic website, but with good information for specific electives. Provides descriptions of previous student experience.

www.studentbmj.com/international/read_electives.php
run by the student BMJ, this site provides an opportunity to read about other student experiences and covers a range of information from the social aspect, language barriers, tips and advice for this placement. However only a few people have written about their elective so the website has limited use for certain areas of the world.
An advantage about this website is the fact they cover IFMSA exchanges and Research exchanges.

www.the-mdu.co.uk
for the Medical Defence Union

www.mps.co.uk
for the Medical Protection Society

www.statravel.co.uk
for information on travel

Other websites normally sell electives packages that offer a placement accommodation, languages courses, etc for a set fee.