Welcome!

[lisa]

Hello!

And welcome! This site will offer a number of educational pieces and advice to both students and doctors! Use this forum to discuss elective ideas or to seek advice in arranging your elective and the planning that is involved!

Your elective is an amazing opportunity during your undergraduate years- use this forum to tell everyone about it!

[lisa]

Any qualified doctors want to post where they went on their elective? for the interest of browsing medical students?

[raj]

Hi there. i did my elective in the ER of a hospital in Winnipeg, central Canada. I originally wanted to do it in America but found that alot of places restricted their elective slots for final year med students. I worked in the Health Sciences Centre, which is the main hospital in Winnipeg. I really enjoyed my time there and would recommend doing emergency medicine for anyone who isn't sure what specialty they want to pursue in the future. My daily work included clerking in new patients, discussing cases with radiologists and other doctors, and practical procedures like suturing and placing ascitic drains etc. The only negative points were that it took a lot of time and money to sort out visas etc (you need a medical aswell) and Winnipeg is not exactly "rocking".

Some advice to students planning your elective:

1. start planning EARLY e.g. if you want to do an elective at NASA then start planning years in advance....

2. making the decision about whether you want to go to a developing country or a developed high-tech country is useful in narrowing down the list of potential electives (i went for high-tech so mainly just chose between australia and USA/Canada).

3. going with friends makes it even better (and safer) but don't let that put you off somewhere you really want to go

4. travel afterwards! ..it is your summer break after all....