General information about US clinical rotations

Just when you start getting comfortable at the medical school, and you start picking up the lifestyle of doing extremely hard work for endless hours, things change. For two years of your medical school, you study hard. You attend lectures and finish tough assignments. You’re pretty much studying all the time. It’s tough, but it’s worth it. Because from the third year, you get to do what you signed up for – treat patients. From the third year, clinical rotations begin, and if you're studying in a reputed medical school, you get US clinical rotations. You're placed in a medical center in U.S. that's associated with your school.

When do US clinical rotations start and where are they held?
It differs with various medical schools but mostly they start in the third year. You will have to go through these rotations in the US medical centers associated with your medical school. These medical centers are in U.S. irrespective of the location of your medical school. For example, clinical rotations for Caribbean medical school like AUSOM happen in the U.S. It totally depends on which medical school you go to and which medical centers they’re associated with. The information is available on the website of the medical schools.

What are the choices of subjects you have?
Generally, in the third year, you’ll have to go through clinical rotations in subjects like obstetrics, pediatrics, psychiatry, family medicine, surgery, gynecology, and internal medicine. In the fourth year, you may study subjects like neurology, radiology, anaesthesiology and emergency medicine rotation. Please note that this is not an exact list as the topics vary with the medical school you’re studying in. But above-mentioned are the most common subjects. Click here to get information about Medical education.

Length and classification
Each clinical rotation may last from 6-12 weeks. It varies according to the course subject and affiliated medical center. Rotations can be core or elective. You do not have any choice to for core rotations. They’re mandatory. For elective, you can be flexible and choose the subjects you like the most. 

Schedule and other details
The time frame for the US clinical rotations depends on the policies of your medical school. It also varies with the number of students in the class. Most likely, you will have a few of your classmates working at the same center as you. 
You will have a good contact with physicians during the US clinical rotations, but most of your education will be taken care of by the residents. You will have to follow the schedule that the resident develops for you and stay on duty until the resident gives you the dismissal for the day. Rotations are mostly treated as an unpaid job. 

That’s the general information about US clinical rotations. In case, you want to know more about it; you should check the website of your medical school.