Pursuing Away Rotations
Electives are an important part of your medical education in order to gain a better understanding of a certain specialty, hospital, or residency program. Pursuing clinical rotations at another site enables you to evaluate the residency program, the clinical setting and patient populations, as well as assess your residency training choices.
Planning Your Elective
Housing and Accommodation
The AAMC does not endorse any of the housing platforms below, but provides resources for students who may use them.
- Rotating Room
RotatingRoom.com is a student-run website that helps medical students find and post sublets while doing away rotations at hospitals around the country. It provides google-mapped results, public transportation directions, panoramic street views, and more. - Housing Anywhere
Housing Anywhere is a housing platform where people can rent out rooms to international students. It originally started as a platform where outgoing exchange students could rent out their rooms when they went abroad. Incoming exchange students can rent these rooms.
Please note: These resources are provided for informational purposes only. No endorsement by AAMC or any other organization is stated or implied.
Applying for Away Electives with the VSLO Application Service
Students who are enrolled at a U.S LCME accredited medical school or COCA-accredited medical school can search and apply for electives in the Visiting Student Learning Opportunities program using the VSLO Application Service.
Participating VSLO Host institutions may be either a U.S. AAMC-member medical school or member of the AAMC's Council of Teaching Hospitals and Health Systems (COTH).
Requirements
Institutions vary in their requirements for visiting students. You can view a complete list of an institution’s requirements in the application service. Below is some information that may help you in gathering your requirements.
- AAMC Standardized Immunization Form
Most participating Host institutions require applicants provide immunization records and many of them accept the AAMC’s Standardized Immunization Form. Whether they require the AAMC Standardized Immunization Form or their own personalized form will be noted in the application service. - Criminal Background Check Service
The AAMC-facilitated Criminal Background Check Service is conducted to help medical schools procure appropriate national criminal history reports.
Resources for Drug Screening*
All of these organizations conduct drug screening. Students can choose any organization from this list to fulfill a drug screening requirement.
- Castle Branch
- Complio/American Databank
- Certiphi Screening
- Concentra (employee-only)
- CentraCare (state of Florida only)
- LabCorp
- Med Express
Resource for Malpractice/Liability Insurance*
The Academic Group offers malpractice/liability insurance to medical students. Students can use this organization to fulfill a requirement for malpractice/liability insurance.
Resources for Criminal Background Checks*
All of these organizations conduct criminal background checks. Students can choose any organization from this list to fulfill a criminal background check requirement.
- Sentry Link
- FBI
- Castle Branch
- Complio/American Databank
- Certiphi Screening
- Verified Credentials
- One Source Background
- Criminal Watch Dog
- CrimCheck
Evaluating Your Clinical Rotation
In addition to beginning your practice of clinical medicine and learning the basics of being a physician, clinical rotations are a great chance for you to try on different specialties and start figuring out which one might be a good fit for you. As you complete each of your rotations, fill out and compare the evaluation questions below to assist you in gathering your thoughts, feelings, and reflections on each specialty as a possible career choice for you. Download the evaluation form.
*The AAMC Committee on Student Records (COSR) compiled information relating to requirements as a resource for medical students. COSR does not endorse or receive benefit from the vendors for these recommendations.