Elective Opportunities

Rationale

The Brody School of Medicine (BSOM) encourages learners to gain exposure to a variety of medical specialties and to pursue individual interests. BSOM provides learners with the opportunity to select courses that will enhance their medical education. The school makes available extensive resources that enable learners to gain deeper insight into their field of choice, as well as to delve deeper into areas that may enhance their overall educational experience. Electives should both broaden and balance the overall professional development of each leaner, while allowing for career exploration and assuring that learners are prepared for graduate medical education and residency training. BSOM offers each learner flexibility in planning an individual program. This procedure communicates the requirements for elective courses and clerkships.

Scope

This procedure affects learners, faculty members, and course directors of the Brody School of Medicine who offer and oversee electives and advise learners.

Definitions

Elective: Any course/clerkship that is chosen by the learner as opposed to being required. These courses are reviewed by the Clinical Curriculum Subcommittee and approved by Executive Curriculum Committee and described in the Course Catalog. These are further characterized as “clinical” or “non-clinical” in the course catalog.

Individually Designed Elective (IDE): An educational experience/rotation that is not offered as a course by BSOM, another medical school, residency program or the military can be designed by the learner (i.e. education, research, primary care, specialty, or international elective).

Away Rotation: An educational experience taken at another medical institution. Away rotations must be approved by the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Clinical Sciences.  to ensure the site meets LCME requirements. Away rotations may count as an Acting Internship if they meet the requirements of an Acting Internship.

Flex Time: Unstructured four, two-week blocks (8 total weeks). Intended to be used for Step preparation, interviews, or exam remediation. May also be used for things like house hunting and other activities related to transitioning to residency.

LCME: Liaison Committee for Medical Education is the accrediting body medical education programs leading to the M.D. degree in the United States and Canada.

The Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO): The Visiting Student Learning Opportunities program is an AAMC application designed to streamline the application process for away electives. VSLO enables medical learners to submit just one application for all institutions, reducing paperwork, miscommunication and time. Visit the VSLO site for more information.

Intensive Care Rotation: Designed to expose learners to critically ill patients and prepare them to recognize, evaluate, and manage patients requiring emergent care. Learners may choose between the medical, surgical, pediatric, neonatal, or cardiac intensive care units to complete this rotation.

Acting Internship: A clinical experience completed at the BSOM or an LCME accredited institution and prepares learners for the responsibility of an intern in their desired specialty. Away Acting Internships may be considered on a case-by-case basis if approved by the Executive Curriculum Committee.

Responsibilities

Office of Medical Education (OME)

Provides oversight, organization, and structure to the electives.

Office of Student Affairs

Ensures fair and consistent implementation of the electives’ curriculum, including scheduling and collects all student grading and evaluation information.

Executive Curriculum Committee (ECC) and the Clinical Curriculum Subcommittee (CCS)

Review all submitted electives (CCS) and approve implementation (ECC) as appropriate. Review electives on a periodic basis to ensure quality of learning experiences.

Procedures for Implementation and Review

The goals of the electives are tailored to the individual interests and needs of each learner and may include:

• Facilitating the learner’s increasing responsibility for self-determination in education and lifelong learning.
• Providing an opportunity for the learner to augment previous experience in clinical, foundational and health delivery areas.
• Enabling the student to experience the practice of medicine in its various forms in a university and/or community setting and to be exposed to opportunities for careers in medicine.
• Allowing the learner to gain deeper knowledge and experience in the care and treatment of ambulatory and acute problems.
• Providing the learner with opportunities to acquire and use skills that will be helpful in his/her next phase of clinical training and beyond.
• Providing the learner with opportunities to enhance medical knowledge in areas that may complement their career aspirations.
• Providing special experiences to meet the needs of learners with specific goals, such as research experience, postgraduate or graduate education and/or special training outside the state or country.

Elective Courses

The elective catalog lists courses that are offered on a regular basis and provides learners with the information necessary to allow them to make choices that fit their schedule and their educational needs. Each elective has been carefully reviewed by the Clinical Curriculum Subcommittee and approved by Executive Curriculum Committee. The catalog is reviewed annually to make sure that information is up-to-date and accurate. Each elective course has a course number, title, description and learning objectives.

Elective Parameters and Duration

*M1 and M2 learners independently select and explore clinical specialties as a component of the Foundations of Medicine courses.

** In addition to a minimum of 26 weeks of general electives, learners must complete an Intensive Care rotation and an Acting Internship.

• Learners have 4 weeks of elective time in the M3 year and 26 weeks in M4.
• Learners must take a minimum of 18 weeks of clinical electives in the 4th year. The determination of whether an elective is clinical or non-clinical will be made by the CCS/ECC.
• Non-clinical elective time in the M4 year is limited to 8 weeks.
• If a learner is part of a Distinction Track, they may be subject to requirements and restrictions beyond those outlined in this policy. Learners should refer to their distinction track leadership for further details.

M3 Electives

Pre-requisites: None

Duration: 2 weeks per elective

Elective time: All students are provided 4 weeks of career exploration electives during the first 12 months of the clinical curriculum (M3 year).

• During the M3 year, learners must complete two 2-week electives; each of these elective blocks follow:
  • the OB/GYN and Psychiatry clerkships.
• Learners can pursue electives within any discipline they choose.
• Learners are strongly encouraged to choose electives in a clinical discipline. However, depending on individual circumstances, a learner may elect to do more than 1 non-clinical elective.
• Elective paperwork must be submitted to the Office of Student Affairs 30 calendar days in advance of the elective.
• Learners cannot do international electives during their M3 year.
• Grading of M3 electives will be on a pass/fail scale.
• A learner may create an IDE, subject to the following:
  • The learner must meet with an appropriate preceptor to design a course description that includes educational goals and objectives using the IDE form.
  • The learner must submit the completed IDE form to the Office of Student Affairs at least 60 calendar days prior to the start of the rotation and sooner if possible.
  • The IDE form will be reviewed by the CCS to determine if it is an acceptable senior experience that will meet graduation requirements. No credit will be allowed for an IDE taken without the approval and documentation indicated above.

M4 Electives

Pre-requisites: All core M3 clerkships must be completed prior to completing advanced electives in the M4 year

Duration: 2-4 weeks per elective

Offerings: The elective catalog includes all available electives. A learner may submit an IDE proposal to the Office of Student Affairs subject to the parameters noted in the above section and approval will come from the ECC.

Placement: M4 elective scheduling will take place in the fall/winter of the M3 year. Learner may add or drop electives up to 30 calendar days before the start of the elective.

• Electives range in length from 2 to 4 weeks based on the course and some are longitudinal (i.e. the student receives 2 weeks of credit for a course they completed over an entire semester)
• Grading of M4 electives is on a pass/fail.
• In addition to 26 weeks of general electives, learners must complete 4 weeks of an ICU rotation and 4 weeks of an Acting Internship during the M4 year.
  • No more than 16 weeks can be completed in a single specialty (exclusive of the ICU rotation) unless permission is granted by the ECC.

Transition to Residency (3 weeks): All learners will complete this mandatory experience in the same blocks. These blocks are not available for electives or flex time. This course further prepares learners for their chosen specialties through a number of experiences, many of which occur in small groups based on specialty choice.

M4 Elective Scheduling Guidelines

• No rotation may be taken more than once at the same site except for specifically designated 2-week rotations that can be converted to 4-week rotations.
• Learners are limited to 16 weeks in any one specialty unless given special permission by the ECC. ICU and Ambulatory Primary Care Electives are not counted in the specialty total.
• Learners are limited to 16 weeks of away rotations unless given special permission by the ECC.
• Learners who are in poor academic standing may not do away rotations until the deficiency has been removed. Learners may also be denied approval for away rotations due to code of conduct issues.
• Learners may take a maximum of eight weeks of non-clinical electives only if on-cycle within the curriculum (the determination of whether an elective is clinical or nonclinical will be made by CCS/ECC).
• All M3 and M4 schedules are reviewed by the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Clinical Sciences,  to ensure that each learner’s schedule meets the requirements for graduation, and is appropriate preparation for matching into the learner’s specialty choice.

Flex Time

• Learners have a maximum of 8 weeks of flex time in their M4 year.
• This is unscheduled time and is intended for Step 2 studying and residency interviewing. It may also be used for house hunting and other necessary activities related to learners’ next phase of medical training.
• This time does not count as educational time. As such, no more than 4 weeks may be used after January 1st of the M4 year in order to maintain full-time.
• Learners may elect to take more elective time in lieu of flex time.
• To allow for more flexibility, and more appropriate use of elective time, learners may opt to withdraw from an elective and enroll in flex time up until close of business the Friday before the elective begins with the following caveats:
  • The currently scheduled course is a local elective. This option is not available for mandatory M4 rotations (ICU, AI, Neuro/PM&R, or EM)
  • There is no guarantee the original elective will be available later in the year and the learner may need to choose a different experience on a first-come, first-served basis.
  • The learner has enough flex time available to make the change.

Schedule for Review

This procedure is reviewed by the CCS and approved by the ECC every three years.

The Elective Opportunities policy is posted to the OME website to allow learners and teaching faculty/Administration to reference at anytime.

Related Policies

None

Applicable Laws, Regulations & Standards

LCME 6.5 Elective Opportunities