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Monash Monash Medicine: Exchange Opportunities

Knarf

Member
I'm just wondering do students have any exchange opportunity with universities in other countries during the five years?
 

Mana

there are no stupid questions, only people
Administrator
I'm just wondering do students have any exchange opportunity with universities in other countries during the five years?
@life of pi can probably tell you more, but as far as I know, most universities offering medicine in Australia, including Monash, give their students the opportunity of an elective placement in overseas countries. The main caveat is that you will have to arrange these placements and pay for all associated costs yourself.
 

pi

Junior doctor
Emeritus Staff
I'm just wondering do students have any exchange opportunity with universities in other countries during the five years?

Hey! There are a few opportunities, although not sure if they will still be around with the new MD system (I suspect most will still be around):
- Doing a semester in Monash Malaysia during late preclin and early clin years
- Doing a semester in Sweden during 4th year
- 6 week overseas elective during final year, anywhere in the world
- Doing one or more normal rotations in final year at Monash Malaysia
- Taking a year off to do a BMedSc(Hons) overseas, Monash has established partnerships with unis such as Oxford

There are probably other options but these ones come to mind rn :)
 

Knarf

Member
Hey! There are a few opportunities, although not sure if they will still be around with the new MD system (I suspect most will still be around):
- Doing a semester in Monash Malaysia during late preclin and early clin years
- Doing a semester in Sweden during 4th year
- 6 week overseas elective during final year, anywhere in the world
- Doing one or more normal rotations in final year at Monash Malaysia
- Taking a year off to do a BMedSc(Hons) overseas, Monash has established partnerships with unis such as Oxford

There are probably other options but these ones come to mind rn :)
@life of pi can probably tell you more, but as far as I know, most universities offering medicine in Australia, including Monash, give their students the opportunity of an elective placement in overseas countries. The main caveat is that you will have to arrange these placements and pay for all associated costs yourself.

Thank both of you.:)
 

DrDrLMG!

Resident Medical Officer
Administrator
Thank both of you.:)

I know similar opportunities exist at UTAS, too (a friend just got back from an elective in India and had been tossing up between there and somewhere in South America, Chile I think it was), so coupled with Pi's Monash info, I'd say this is common to all Universities.
 
S

Shanghai

Guest
I'm just wondering do students have any exchange opportunity with universities in other countries during the five years?

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S

Shanghai

Guest
A clinical elective in China sounds like a really fantastic idea right now...!
Right now probably not, but considering that one needs to apply at least 6 month ahead of time - Im absolutely sure the COVID-2019 will pass too...
 

chinaski

Regular Member
I don't think your confidence is well-founded. Further to that, Australian students on elective require insurance coverage from their medical school - I would suspect the schools wouldn't be in a huge rush to put China on the "green list" of "safe" places to travel in that context. It would be a huge risk to plan an elective which, six or twelve months down the track, is vetoed with no Plan B in hand.
 

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S

Shanghai

Guest
Your point is well noted and the COVID-2019 will surely not only affect most medical electives worldwide, but also increasinglu all international travel for an unknown time. As security recommendations of all regions do change frequently, I think that every seriously interested students will be closely following the regional developments in their region of choice anyhow and asess the risks involved carefully.

However to make my point clear: I feel this particular thread is the wrong place to get into an discussion on principles of international medical electives or current security risks of certain regions offered and I suggest opening a new thread on this topic then if there is interest in the community about the impact of COVID on undertaking international medical electives.

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Crow

Staff | Junior Doctor
Moderator
Your point is well noted and the COVID-2019 will surely not only affect most medical electives worldwide, but also increasinglu all international travel for an unknown time. As security recommendations of all regions do change frequently, I think that every seriously interested students will be closely following the regional developments in their region of choice anyhow and asess the risks involved carefully.

However to make my point clear: I feel this particular thread is the wrong place to get into an discussion on principles of international medical electives or current security risks of certain regions offered and I suggest opening a new thread on this topic then if there is interest in the community about the impact of COVID on undertaking international medical electives.

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Would you happen to have any personal affiliation with this "opportunity" you're promoting?
 
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S

Shanghai

Guest
Yes, I have done my own elective period through them and can definetely recommend it
 

chinaski

Regular Member
On the contrary, I think discussion of the actual logistics of travel to, and coverage whilst in, China as a medical student is entirely within the context of this thread. Indeed, before even entertaining the thought of an elective in China, any student would be well-advised to discuss this with their medical school - they may well find that China is on a black list until further notice, regardless (and so prospectively applying for an elective there right now would be inadvisable and discouraged).
 
S

Shanghai

Guest
agreed, currently this will also be true for Korea, Italy and I guess the number of countries will get much longer in the coming weeks. Bad times for going abroad for short term education at the moment in general I suppose as the situation changes drastically every day now. But again, I am pretty sure that this will pass too at some point ...
 

chinaski

Regular Member
agreed, currently this will also be true for Korea, Italy and I guess the number of countries will get much longer in the coming weeks. Bad times for going abroad for short term education at the moment in general I suppose as the situation changes drastically every day now. But again, I am pretty sure that this will pass too at some point ...

When planning an elective, however, nebulous "this too will pass (sometime - but nobody actually knows)" thoughts aren't really feasible. If a student has a fixed term elective, it's not wise to stake everything on the vague hope that travel will be safe by the time the elective rolls around. Ultimately it could leave you with NO elective term at all. I assume the mob you're promoting are advising students of the same...? I'm actually quite surprised they are even offering rotations in China right now.
 
S

Shanghai

Guest
OK. Its up to everyone if and what to plan and I was not saying that anyone should go to China or anywhere else until the situation has been resolved and its absolutely unclear when that will be. If it does not resolve at all, then I assume we all will have the virus sweeping through all countries anyhow.
And I absolutely agree with you, if you want to be sure and safe on planning, every student should strictly stick to their home university as in the last 2 days the number of seriously affected countries is growing really fast and probably will continue to grow.
I dont know about Australian policies, but in Germany students can always rely on getting an elective at their home universities - especially when electives planned abroad are cancelled due to public reasons, but if that is no possibility, one should ask if international electives are a good idea at all.
I assume that every medical student is making informed decisions in the first place and will just wait until travel has become safe in general again to look into going abroad then. I just posted to let others know about this and saw this initial post asking for students who maybe know on other international possibilities - not to advise anyone going abroad at all at current.
I'm really sorry if you feel that my post is not appropriate or useful, but I hope it maybe it will be to others in the future... I dont mean to do any harm here and I am a little surprised on this reaction.
 

chinaski

Regular Member
I dont know about Australian policies, but in Germany students can always rely on getting an elective at their home universities - especially when electives planned abroad are cancelled due to public reasons, but if that is no possibility, one should ask if international electives are a good idea at all.

Contrastingly, in Australia, "back up" elective terms are not guaranteed and indeed would be very difficult/nigh on impossible to arrange at short notice, hence my concern. Australian students regularly plan overseas electives, but for "high risk" areas, the universities often won't agree to cover students or facilitate the elective, so this must be taken into account. This stands for "chronic" issues of high risk (eg some schools discourage rotations to places like South Africa given the high rate of HIV and higher likelihood of occupational exposure), as well as more acute situations, such as what we are seeing with COVID-19.

I'm really sorry if you feel that my post is not appropriate or useful, but I hope it maybe it will be to others in the future... I dont mean to do any harm here and I am a little surprised on this reaction.

Nobody suggested your post was inappropriate or useless, nor did anyone suggest that you were personally recommending travel to China. However, your post has drawn attention to the fact that there is an organisation that appears to be arranging exchanges to China, which, given the current situation, seems unusual (at best). The resultant discussion and questions that stem from that information should not be inferred by you as some sort of personal attack.
 

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Shanghai

Guest
Alright, I was just wondering about the feedback and dont take anything personal.
Your thoughts have gotten me also interested and I have just emailed the organizers of Medopolo with those questions: they have already responded and let me know that electives in China for February and March are currently frozen and that they urge all students to not start for any scheduled rotations to start within at LEAST 6 weeks (with a 2 week curfew in effect after arrival and several departments at the hospital closed at current it just seems to not make sense). They have assured that the situation in Shanghai is still 'safe' up to today and is exspected to stay like that from the official standpoints with 334 cases registered at current, but that the situation may be subject to rapid change. They also wrote me that they make sure that all current students are getting offered an alternative with their respective medschools and if anyone runs into problems, they are approaching the medical schools directly to find a solution. Updates on the developments worldwide can be relyably obtained from the WHO world map.
The program has reacted to the emerging situation in early january and from what they know from being in contact with the WHO and several embassies in China, they will advise their students depending on the official recommendations. Official sources at current exspect the outbreak to steeply rise in numbers for another few weeks within China until the quarantine measures show effect - but again, noone really knows on how its gonna develop.
The program in Brazil is not affected and open without interruptions - unless a situation arises in Brazil as well in the future.
I would say, any interested student should wait on how the situation develops and only apply abroad once the situation has stabilized and public services in all contries have gone back to normal.
Isnt it risky then for students in Australia to opt for abroad exchange if its generally hard to find a backup in case of something not wotking out?
Many greetings and thanks for the feedback.
 

chinaski

Regular Member
Isnt it risky then for students in Australia to opt for abroad exchange if its generally hard to find a backup in case of something not wotking out?

Most overseas electives are not considered as risky as a trip to China at the moment, so the advice is not applicable ALL overseas electives, only SOME. Australia is currently imposing a travel ban on travel from mainland China, so it would be folly to plan a trip there (for any reason - even to places like Shanghai deemed "safe" by these providers) until the situation becomes clearer.

It would also be worth pointing out that in Australia, medical schools have very limited abilities to organise or provide alternative electives within Australia, given that the universities do not employ the clinical staff who host students, nor do universities have much jurisdiction in the government-run hospital system. So whilst it's all well and good that this elective provider intends to "approach the medical schools directly", this in practice doesn't actually guarantee much as far as a solution goes.
 
S

Shanghai

Guest
I see the point your raising. In Germany the universities govern their own university hospitals and affiliated hospitals to place their students in. I never heard of any case around here of any student having encountered any serious problems when not leaving for a foreign elective or coming back early - it seems like universities around here can handle such cases quite easily.
However, lets hope for the best and that the fight against the COVID-2019 is won as soon as possible - for our all sake and for the sake of students being able to freely enjoy clinical education abroad soon again.
 

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