Visiting Student Policy, UMKC School of Medicine

  • Last Modified: Jan 17, 2025
  • Sponsor(s):
  • Responsible Office(s): Council on Curriculum

Policy Statement

Department chairs and/or the director of medical education at an affiliated clinical site will decide whether to take visiting students into electives.

Visiting students can be added to electives as long as:

  • UMKC students are given priority in choosing which blocks they will take electives.
    • The majority of elective placement occurs during the elective placement process, which occurs twice in each academic year at elective placement meetings. Students inform their education team coordinator of their elective choices, and are placed according to Council on Curriculum policy. UMKC students are placed in electives for blocks 1-8 in March , and in electives for blocks 9-13 in October. After these dates, visiting students may be accepted into electives.
  • So that the education of UMKC students is not compromised, limits on the number of visiting students accepted should be set and followed. Each visiting student is eligible to take no more than two electives, a total of 8 weeks, at UMKC.

Visiting students shall not be scheduled on the same teams/shifts as UMKC medical students during clerkships that are required for UMKC medical students. When accepting visiting students, the total number of students including the visitors should not exceed the maximum number of students set by each clerkship director. All domestic M.D. or D.O. students must apply through the AAMC Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) service to be considered for eligibility and placement in an elective.

  • Students at M.D. or D.O. schools in the United States may view elective opportunities using the AAMC Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) service. Students must complete all required elements of the application to be considered for placement. The coordinator will notify the student through VSLO regarding the status of the application(s) and any offers or denial of placement.

Students from medical schools outside of the United States must apply in one of the following ways:

  • Students at M.D. schools outside of the United States whose institutions are listed as “home schools” in VSLO must apply through the AAMC Visiting Student Learning Opportunities (VSLO) service. Students must complete all required elements of the application to be considered for placement. The coordinator will notify the student through VSLO regarding the status of the application(s) and any offers or denial of placement.
  • Students attending one of the four affiliated international institutions should contact the coordinator in the School of Medicine Medical Humanities/International Office for information about potential elective options and application materials.
    • Harbin Medical University – Harbin, China
    • Medical University of Graz – Graz, Austria
    • Instituto Tecnológico Y De Estudios Superiores de Monterrey – Monterrey, Mexico
    • Peking University – Peking, China
  • Students attending a school that is not listed as a “home school” on VSLO and are not attending one of the four affiliated international institutions must contact the coordinator in the School of Medicine Medical Humanities/International Office for information about potential elective options and application materials.
  • International visiting students are strictly limited to an observational role in any approved elective rotation.

The decision to accept a specific domestic visiting student for an elective will be made by the elective coordinator or by the departments/hospitals in which the student wishes to take the elective. This decision is based on the maximum number of students that the elective can accept in each block, available faculty/staff, and other parameters as defined by the department.

  • All visiting students from international institutions must be approved by the instructor/department.

All visiting students accepted at University Health (UH) will be responsible for completing compliance/HIPAA training. A UH representative will contact students via email with instructions for completing this mandatory requirement. Each block, the electives coordinator will provide a list of all visiting students and elective assignments to the Administrative Assistant to the Chief Medical Officer, as well as UH Security.

As required by the school’s accrediting body, the visiting student coordinator will keep a running record of numbers of visitors, the electives they took, and the type of school they attend (Liaison Committee on Medical Education accredited, America Osteopathic Association accredited, etc.). For that reason, each elective contact person at CMH and St. Luke’s Hospital must report to the School of Medicine’s elective coordinator every six months the number of students who take an elective and the type of school from which they came (LCME, AOA, etc.).

Post-graduate M.D.s or D.O.s will not be scheduled into medical student electives.

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