Electives

Requirements

Each student must complete a minimum of 12 hours of electives during Year 1. It is your responsibility to select and arrange your elective(s). Use the electives catalogue to request electives either by emailing the contact in the catalogue or by reviewing the Medical Students' Association (MSA) website. Electives may be completed in more than one discipline.

The deadline to complete your Year 1 electives is March 31.

You may complete your elective hours in a variety of ways. Some examples: 

• All 12 hours with one preceptor over a period of time or all in one day
• Two different six-hour electives with two different preceptors (can be different disciplines)
• Three four-hour sessions with different preceptors (can be different disciplines)

You are responsible for ensuring that each elective is recorded in Assess before you begin the elective and that the preceptor completes their portion of the form. This ensures that elective hours count toward the MED 517 requirement.

Note: Electives are not to be completed during any scheduled class time in any course. Any absences from class time will not be counted toward your elective.

You may attend optional summer electives during the summer between Years 1 and 2. You can complete as many or as few electives as you desire.

You are responsible for ensuring that each elective is recorded in Assess before you begin the elective and that the preceptor completes their portion of the form. This ensures that elective hours count toward the MED 518 requirement.

Note: If you want to participate in optional summer electives when classes are finished in May, you must register in MED 518 (both sections) and pay tuition and fees.

Requirements

You must complete a minimum of 12 hours of electives during Year 2. It is your responsibility to select and arrange your elective(s). Use the electives catalogue to request electives either by emailing the contact in the catalogue or by reviewing the MSA website. Electives may be completed in more than one discipline.

The deadline to complete Year 2 electives is April 30.

You may complete the elective hours in a variety of ways. Some examples:

• All 12 hours with one preceptor over a period of time or all in one day
• Two different six-hour electives with two different preceptors (can be different disciplines)
• Three four-hour sessions with different preceptors (can be different disciplines)

You are responsible for ensuring that each elective is recorded in Assess before you begin the elective and that the preceptor completes their portion of the form. This ensures that elective hours count toward the MED 527 requirement.

Note: Electives are not to be completed during any scheduled class time in any course. Any absences from class time will not be counted toward your elective.

Rural shadowing and skills is only available for medical students currently enrolled at the University of Alberta medical school. This experience is not allowed to interfere with any mandatory sessions that are part of regular classes and is restricted to weekends only.

Application Process

You must contact a rural preceptor to arrange a shadowing experience. Once availability is confirmed and acceptance is received, Year 1 and 2 students must fill out the top portion of the assessment form in Assess before attending the elective. After completing the elective, you must ensure that the preceptor fills out the bottom portion of the assessment form.

Note: Approval MUST be received by the Office of Rural and Regional Health before the elective experience can take place. Failure to do so could result in not receiving credit for the elective. 

• You are responsible for selecting and arranging your electives.
• You must complete a minimum of 10 weeks of clinical electives during the clerkship portion of the MD Program.
• Electives cannot be scheduled until you are aware of your rotation schedules. You must receive an assessment from your preceptor to receive credit for an elective.
• You must complete a minimum of 10 weeks of clinical electives before the end of your Year 4 clinical terms.
• Clinical electives may be completed at any Canadian medical school, LCME-accredited American medical school, international sites that are part of a formal exchange program, other approved global health sites and other sites as approved by the electives & selectives coordinator.
• All clinical electives will count toward the minimum of 10 weeks of clinical electives required to graduate. These experiences will also count toward visiting electives and electives diversification requirements.
• Each elective is normally a minimum of two weeks or 20 half-days. A half-day is four to six hours in duration.
• Clinical electives cannot be more than four weeks in duration.
• You can attend a maximum of six weeks of summer electives in MED 528 (the optional summer electives between Years 2 and 3). You may carry forward a maximum of four weeks credit from MED 528 to MED 547 Electives (Year 3) or MED 557 Electives (Year 4). If you want to participate in optional summer electives when classes are finished in May, you must register in MED 528 (both sections) and pay tuition and fees.
• You may carry clinical electives time forward from Year 3 to Year 4.
• You will not be granted credit for an elective that is supervised by a member of your immediate family, extended family or in-laws or by anyone with whom you are involved in a close personal relationship. You will not be granted credit for an elective with your personal physician or at a clinic at which you have been a patient within the previous two years as this would be considered to be a conflict of interest.
• One clinical research elective can be counted (up to a maximum of two weeks) towards the elective requirement. 

Based on the Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada (AFMC) 2022 guidelines, all visiting electives must be a minimum of two weeks long. Canadian medical students cannot exceed 12 weeks of visiting electives in total. Visiting electives include those experiences in other Canadian medical schools, as well as those in LCME-accredited American schools and international electives and exchanges.

Depending on the elective, NetCare and/or Connect Care may be required.

NetCare

When access to NetCare is required, visiting students must request access a minimum of six weeks before the elective start date. Consult the NetCare access information on the AFMC Portal to learn more about how to request this access.

Connect Care

When access to Connect Care is required for an elective, visiting students will be sent details closer to the elective start date, as this is in-class training and is NOT currently available online. Students will receive an email from AHS directly.

Following the AFMC Student Elective Diversification Policy, students can complete up to eight weeks of electives in any single entry-level CaRMS discipline. This promotes a diverse student experience and prepares you for various career options.

• Research electives do not count towards the eight-week elective cap.
• Electives in subspecialties that are part of a PGY-3 (R3) match (e.g. Pediatrics, Internal Medicine) are counted as separate disciplines and do not count towards the eight-week cap in the general specialty.
• Clinical electives must normally be a minimum of two weeks in duration.
• Elective diversification extends to any clinical elective, including international electives and exchanges.

For more information about elective diversification, including the list of CaRMS entry-level disciplines, refer to the Electives Diversification Policy.

Diversification – Rural Electives 

Rural electives will be classified based on the predominant role or primary training of the preceptor. 

You must receive an assessment from your preceptor to receive credit for an elective.

Some electives may require you to be on call. This should be arranged with the preceptor before the elective begins. Similar to clerkship rotations, you should not be on call for more than one night out of four.

To arrange electives in Edmonton and Rural Alberta, you are encouraged to examine the opportunities available in the electives catalogue but are not limited to these selections.

If you're unsure about any elective, discuss it with the coordinator of electives and selectives or the electives administrator before finalizing arrangements.

The procedure for U of A students to request and complete electives is outlined in the Booking and Confirming Electives Procedure.

The following instructions apply to U of A medical students:

Procedure

Clinical Electives at the U of A

• Find an elective from the electives catalogue on the MD Program website. You are required to submit an elective request through Cally (Electives module).  

Rural Electives

• To request rural electives, please contact the specific placement contact.
  • For electives in Red Deer, email Pam Nacinovich pam.nacinovich@ualberta.ca
  • For electives in Grande Prairie, email Corrie Merchant merchant@ualberta.ca
  • For all other rural electives, email Kurfy Kangave dalsou@ualberta.ca
• In your email, provide:

1. The title of the elective
2. Three specific start and end dates, in order of preference
3. Your year of study at the time of the elective

• The placement contact will provide you with a list of available preceptors. You will contact the preceptor(s) to arrange the elective and forward an email approval from the preceptor to the Kurfy Kangave (dalsou@ualberta.ca) before submitting the elective request through MedSIS. All rural electives need pre-approval by the preceptor, before submitting the elective request through Cally.
• When arranging a rural elective, ensure that the preceptor is a physician in the discipline of the elective that you are requesting (e.g. anesthesiology electives must be with an anesthesiologist)

All elective requests should be submitted through Cally a minimum of three weeks before the start date of the elective.

Only electives that have been entered in Cally by the submission deadline, as determined by the MD Program for the CaRMS first iteration, will appear on the student's CaRMS application.

You must supply the name of the primary preceptor who will do your assessment (the preceptor you worked with the most or the one assigned to evaluate you on that elective).

Clinical electives must be recorded in Assess by completing the top portion of the "Assessment of Elective Performance" form so that an assessment can be completed by your preceptor. The form must be completed by the preceptor to receive credit for the elective. It is the student's responsibility to ensure the assessment has been completed.

You must cancel an elective at least six weeks before the start date of the elective. Failure to do so may result in a professionalism lapse. Find out more about cancelling an elective in the Electives Policy. 

Failure to submit your elective request correctly will delay processing. This process is extremely important to follow since it protects students by providing malpractice insurance coverage. If students do not follow these steps, they run the risk of having no malpractice coverage.

Based on the Association of Faculties of Medicine in Canada (AFMC) 2022 guidelines, all visiting electives must be a minimum of two weeks long. Canadian medical students cannot exceed 12 weeks of visiting electives in total. Visiting electives include those experiences in other Canadian medical schools, as well as those in LCME-accredited American schools and international electives and exchanges.

All Canadian universities are now on the AFMC Student Portal.

Procedure

• To add AFMC Portal-requested electives to Cally, you must send their official confirmation from the AFMC Portal to electives@ualberta.ca. It's your responsibility to ensure these electives appear in Cally under your personal timetable before the elective begins. Failure to do so will result in a professionalism lapse.
• If an elective is cancelled, you must cancel the elective via the AFMC Portal and inform the MD Program in writing. You should familiarize yourself with the specific medical school's cancellation policy to comply accordingly. Cancelling later than the school's policy dictates will result in a professionalism lapse.
• You must submit the preceptor's name and email address to electives@ualberta.ca by the last Monday of the elective to ensure a student assessment form is sent to the preceptor. You must pass the assessment to receive credit for your elective.
• To request clinical electives through the AFMC Student Portal, click here.

All students undertaking international electives, including those in LCME-accredited medical schools in the United States, are required to complete the steps outlined in the International Electives Policy.

Procedure 

• All electives taking place in the United States must be first approved by the electives and selectives coordinator by emailing electives@ualberta.ca and outlining the details of the elective, including the location, date, preceptor and topic.
• It is your responsibility to submit all required documentation for the application to the medical school for their elective, such as medical clearance forms, police record checks, etc.
• Once an elective is confirmed at another medical school, you should forward the preceptor/administrator's confirmation email to electives@ualberta.ca. This email must include the elective's title, location, start and end dates and the preceptor's full name and email address.
• The elective will be entered in your schedule in Cally.
• By the last Monday of the elective, you must email electives@ualberta.ca with the name(s) of the primary preceptor(s) responsible for your evaluation, indicating either the preceptor you worked with most or who is designated to evaluate students for that elective. You can submit multiple names if more than one preceptor is qualified to evaluate their performance.
• Cally will send an evaluation request email to the preceptor once the student has added the appropriate Assessment of Elective form in Cally. It is your responsibility to ensure this form is completed. Email the preceptor if the form has not been completed within two weeks after completing the elective.

If the elective is cancelled for any reason, the MD Program office, the preceptor and the department (where applicable) must be notified within two working days.

The Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry (FoMD)'s Global Health Program regularly monitors the countries where students may plan electives for natural disasters, political instability and disease exposure. If conditions worsen in the elective's intended country, the faculty helps students find new elective locations.

The Global Health Program is responsible for considering and verifying the following: 

• Potential risks to the health and safety of patients, students and the community
• The availability of emergency care
• The possibility of natural disasters, political instability and exposure to disease
• The objectives of the elective
• The number and type of patients seen
• The level and quality of supervision and methods of teaching
• The working conditions
• Any potential challenges to the code of medical ethics adopted by the home institution

It is assumed that the quality of electives is high and student safety is not an issue at sites with which the U of A has a formal agreement (e.g. Karolinska Institute, Graz, etc.), as well as electives at LCME-accredited medical schools in the United States.

All students undertaking international electives are required to complete the steps outlined in the International Electives Policy.

Procedure

Before an International Elective:

• You must undertake a required 12-hour Global Health Education and Advocacy Elective (GHEA) organized by the MSA. They can be contacted at lo.globalhealth@gmail.com. The GHEA must be completed before an international elective or exchange. Students are only required to complete the elective once during their medical education.
• You must participate in the Global Health Program’s pre-departure training day. This is a required activity each time a student registers for an international elective.
• You must submit your application form (available on the Global Health Program’s Go Abroad website) at least six weeks before departure to allow the U of A's Risk Management and Insurance office to determine whether insurance and WCB will cover students in that country. The U of A will purchase additional insurance coverage if required.
• You must sign the Release of Liability form.
• You must complete the Goals and Objectives form.
• You must register your elective with the MD Program office (electives@ualberta.ca) so that it can be entered into MedSIS.
• If undertaking an elective in a low- or middle-income country (LMIC), you must attend a travel clinic for up-to-date information about vaccines and medications needed for the country in which you will be undertaking the elective. Low-income countries are classified as having incomes of $1,005 or less and middle-income countries as $1,006 - $3,955 (World Bank classification, 2018).
• You must take the University of Alberta International (UAI) Pre-Departure Orientation. Students who have completed the Pre-Departure Orientation previously do not need to repeat it for each international elective they are registered for. However, students must complete a new Risk Plan every year if they are registered for an international elective. For more information and to request that a Risk Plan be reset for an upcoming elective, contact uairm@ualberta.ca.
• You must register with UGo Off-Campus Travel Registry.
• You must register with the Government of Canada’s Registration of Canadians Abroad.
• You must watch a provided video about health risks and safety in international electives.

Upon Arrival at the Elective:

• Upon arrival at your destination, you must email the FoMD’s Global Health Program (ghfomd@ualberta.ca) to inform them that you arrived at your elective safely.

After the Elective:

• If receiving bursary support from the Global Health program, you must complete a poster outlining your elective experience for the Global Health Fair which is hosted annually in the first week of February in collaboration with International Week.
• You must attend a post-elective debrief session organized by the Global Health program.
• You must complete the Global Health Program’s post-elective survey/evaluation form.

More information about how to participate in international exchanges, including field station and non-field station electives, IFMSA exchanges and European electives can be found on the Global Health’s Going Abroad website and in the MD Program’s International Electives Policy.