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Theology | Medical Electives 1 Start where you are Past student electives: Your medical school should have a file of elective reports written by past students. You could use one of these as a basis for organising a similar student elective. If possible talk to the student involved. 2 Try existing networks Members of the British Medical Association can obtain a booklet about electives which includes ideas about funding, Tel 020 7387 4499. BMDST (British Medical and Dental Students Trust) exists to help
British students either find an elective or to assist with funding. Information about finding an elective can be obtained if you contact British Medical and Dental Students Trust, 120 Blythswood Street, Glasgow G2 4EH, Tel. 0141 221 5858. Application forms can be obtained from all British medical and dental school. Try to get hold of
The Medic’s guide to Work and Electives around the World, by Mark Wilson, published by Arnold. 3 Try organisations specialising in overseas voluntary work World Service Enquiry provides information and advice about the opportunities that exist to contribute to peace, justice and development in the third world. All our services are outlined on our web site. The
Guide to volunteering for Development gives useful advice on voluntary work in general and the Agency List gives you
over 350 organisations that take volunteers. You will need to look for those organisations that work in the medical field and check if they will take electives. 4 Other Web information The best site is probably www.geocities.com/medicsabroad. It has lots of links, is easily manageable and includes reports from electives. There are also international links to elective information on the Internet at: www.siumed.edu/lib/ref – look at ‘international electives’. The European Medical Students' Association may be able to provide further help. Their web site lists the association’s national co-ordinator representatives - you then contact the one in the country you wish to do your placement www.emsa-europe.org for details. IFMSA are involved with elective work and there is a link from the emsa page. Alternatively, you could search the Internet using a good search engine like www.google.com or www.goto.com. There is a USA specialist non-profit site, www.idealist.org, which may be worth a visit - it seems to have lots of information on South America in particular. 5 Christian Mission Societies This can be one of the fruitful places to start – if you have membership or some connection with a Christian church. There are over 20 Christian Mission Societies based in the UK who have established medical work overseas and are willing to cater for student electives. Ask for a copy of the CMF/MMA booklet entitled
Medical Elective Opportunities, which gives contact addresses, phone numbers and details of what is available. www.cmf.org.uk CMF contacts world-wide CMF (see below) is affiliated to over 40 similar fellowships of Christian doctors throughout the world by means of the ICMDA (International Christian Medical and Dental Association). If you let them know what your country of interest is, then there is a good chance that they will be able to give you contacts there. Individual hospitals A number of established hospitals in developing countries have already indicated that they can take elective students. CMF can supply contacts for you to write to directly, if you can specify what region of the world you are interested in. Contact Christian Medical Fellowship (CMF) www.cmf.org.uk/mission/prepelec In Scotland, the Edinburgh Medical Missionary Society also arranges electives: Tel 0131 313 3828, www.emms.org. Of the individual mission agencies, Interserve offer 2-12 month electives for Christians emailontrack@isewi.org The Methodist Church has similar opportunities – contact the Overseas Service Secretary, telephone 020 7467 5502 www.methodistchurch.org.uk. They may have some funding for Christians going to Christian hospitals.
The MMA (Medical Missionary Association) is able to give grants to Christian healthcare students who wish to experience healthcare work overseas: Tel 020 7790 1336 or email grants@healthserve.org , and see their web site www.healthserve.org. They are a member of Global Connections (formerly the Evangelical Missionary Alliance) and may prefer people of evangelical persuasion. 6 Some general warnings.
Many UK medical schools seem to think that a 15 day elective is sufficient experience – but most overseas hospitals feel this is far too short a period to begin to deal with all the cross-cultural issues that abound when people go to work in another place. Your period overseas may need to be negotiated with that in mind - six
to eight weeks is preferred. Many UK medical schools now restrict both the activities that students may carry out (anything that means contact with blood, maternity cases, etc) because of fears of litigation about lack of supervision or briefing. They will often restrict the placements if there are UK government travel advisory warnings. It is wise to sort these out before making arrangements and booking tickets. The best experience generally comes after the best preparation. MMA provide this, and so do we. 7 Christians Abroad Medical Electives Christians Abroad has links with hospitals in Africa (Cameroon, Kenya and Nigeria) and may be able to help set up a medical elective for medical or nursing students. These hospitals are church-run and normally expect students to have a Christian faith. We are not able to offer funding for these electives, though some help up from one of our supporting churches or from the organisations mentioned above might be available once the placement has been set up. We are able to give advice and support, set up the placements, and arrange travel, insurance, briefing and de-briefing, recommend you for grants from supporting churches and give other practical advice.
Read about
Katherine Horner's elective at
Shisong. How does it work?
We are able to help because of the tax
relief we get on gifts through the British tax system. This pays for most of our
costs, but we still ask for a minimum donation of £150 - though for this you
also get briefing and de-briefing sessions. We agree a budget with you, and you (or perhaps a parent or partner who pays UK tax) make a payment to us of that amount. You become 'our' volunteer but the whole sum remains available for you, and we reclaim the tax on that gift and use that to pay for our time and other costs in setting up the placement. An example of a budget might be: | Air fare | £500 - 600 | Depending on destination and season | | Visa | £0 - 50 | Depending on destination | | Travel & health insurance | £60 | If not provided through your hospital | | Innoculations, anti-malarials | Up to £200 | If not provided through your hospital | | preparation/briefing | £150 | | | | | | | Total | £710 - 1060 | | You will generally be covered by your hospital for medical insurance and any required innoculations, so the price will therefore depend on where you are going and how many of you there are to share the cost of briefing. You will also have personal expenses, local travel costs and perhaps some holiday costs at the end of your stay. The minimum we insist on, to make sure we are not subsidising you, is that we buy the air ticket (either through the specialist company we use or through a company chosen by you) and that we provide you with briefing. We are a responsible organisation and will not take you on unless you agree to briefing sessions with us - we have
over 30 years of practical experience in sending people overseas and can often link you with people who have worked or visited the place or country you are going to. Contact
If you are interested in this opportunity and would
like to know more
contact
us. Look at our volunteer terms and conditions in
how it works We can also help you with... Tickets and Visas especially if you can’t get to the Embassies and High Commissions in London. We use a travel agent that gives its profits to development work.
Travel and Health Insurance
National Insurance
Briefing or De-briefing | 
