Clinical Electives Policy

  • Last Modified: Feb 10, 2026
  • Sponsor(s):
  • Responsible Office(s): Council on Curriculum

Policy Statement

Clinical electives are assigned to one of these distinct categories by the Council on Curriculum:

  1. Family and Community Medicine
  2. Internal Medicine
  3. Psychiatry
  4. Obstetrics/Gynecology
  5. Pathology
  6. Pediatrics
  7. Radiology
  8. Surgery
  9. Miscellaneous
  10. Neurology

To promote breadth of experience, clinical elective selection must conform to these guidelines:

  • Students must complete at least three clinical electives, each from one of the above categories, as a graduation requirement. Further selection of clinical electives may take place at the discretion of the student, with appropriate advising from the Docent and Education Team Coordinator.
  • tudents must also complete at least one Critical Care elective. This elective will also count toward the three required clinical electives chosen from the categories listed above.
  • All students must petition the Council on Curriculum to take more than 4 clinical electives from any one of the above categories.

Participation in clinical electives can take place in any order.

All clinical electives available for medical students are reviewed by the Council on Curriculum. The Council on Curriculum assigns each individual elective experience to a general UMKC elective category, and within each category the elective is matched to the most appropriate UMKC elective title. These agreed upon elective titles correspond to ACGME approved postgraduate training programs.

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