What is a Medical Elective?
The eight weeks given for your elective can be the greatest and most rewarding time of your university career
It is an opportunity to be completely independent in deciding where in the world you would like to go to study any aspect of medicine of particular interest. The possibilities are bounded only by the extent of one’s imagination and initiative.
The experience will be what you make it – from studying mountain medicine in a rural Himalayan clinic, to measuring risks of sunburn on Bondi beach. It’s a fantastically exciting prospect, but planning the perfect elective takes time and effort, so plan ahead and start organising early.
Some important questions to ask are: Where do I want to go, what experience do I want to attain, and what do I want to accomplish? In this sense, the experience offered by a sophisticated healthcare establishment in a developed country will probably be similar to one offered here in Aberdeen, where the resources and support available for completion of a detailed research project will be abundant. On the other hand, if you want to travel to a less developed country you are likely to have the opportunity to gain experience in clinical skills that may not be expected of you until later in your professional career. However, the resources and support available for conducting a valuable project will most likely be less available. Wherever the setting, you will have the opportunity to work alongside local medics in a new and exciting environment.
What is a ‘Project’?
The project is what you will be doing whilst on your elective. It is the essential requirement of your elective, and must be written up as a report and submitted for assessment. When you know what it is you want to study, and you know where it is you want to go, think of a hypothesis or question that you can test whilst there.