Overseas Electives

I know its really early to ask this, since I'm not even in medical school yet, but some schools let you take elevtives, in 4th year or 5th year, or similar. They say you can go in the UK or overseas. I'm interested in either going to New York, or, more to the point, Krakow, Poland (since all my grandparents are polish and i love the city).

Does anyone have any experience of these places or overseas electives in general?

Reply 1

airtones

I think now virtually all unis not only offer this but they actually expect it. You can do UK electives but most do overseas. Anywhere you can find a placement is acceptable, so IF you can find one in New York or Krakow then you shouldn't have a problem. Finding a placement in the USA can be very hard. But your a very long way off, better focus your attention on more immiediate things.

Reply 2

Egypt

You can go pretty much where ever you want for your elective. As long as it is safe, and is signed off by your med school I can't think of anything you cannot do. The only hard bit is organising it, however if you start early enough this isn't a prob for most people! People hve gone to Nepal to do tibetan medicine, South Africa to do trauma, air ambulance in the UK, anything and anywhere you fancy!

Reply 3

theatrical

I've still got a couple of years to go but I've already started saving a bit of money now and again for my "elective fund". I don't know what I want to do exactly; when I was travelling in Australia on my gap year I met a 5th year Aberdeen medic who was doing 4 weeks in Melbourne and 4 weeks in the Cook Islands - I quite like the sound of that!

Reply 4

Fluffy

Most people sod off abroard for elective. Tip though, is that most med schools books for accepting overseas students (esp popular places such as NY, most of the US, Oz, Nz etc) are about a year before your elective period so organise early!

At BL, the only places you can't go to are those deemed unsafe by the Foreign Office (as found here~: http://www.fco.gov.uk/en/travelling-and-living-overseas/travel-advice-by-country), which I'm guessing will be the same for all other UK med schools.