Electives

Choosing Electives

You can research electives with the help of your Docent, Education Team Coordinators and Council on Curriculum staff. Electives must have been previously approved by the Council on Curriculum and found in the Electives Database. Access on-campus or by connecting to UMKC VPN when off-campus.

Electives Database for On-Campus Users

ELECTIVES DATABASE FOr OFF-CAMPUS USERS

Types of Electives

Clinical electives

Clinical electives are assigned to one of 12 distinct categories by the Council on Curriculum: 

To qualify, you must spend greater than 50% of your time in a clinical setting, which may include patient interactions in clinics or inpatient wards; conferences; discussions; rounds; assignments online with products specified such as answers to questions or exercises, essays, short papers, or reading assignments with a graded assignment; field trips with assignments; and case discussions or reflective meetings with faculty.

Clinical Electives Policy

More information on electives

Non-clinical electives

Students may enroll for credit in academic electives, research electives and humanities electives. These non-clinical elective experiences yield one month of required medicine credit, but they do not fulfill requirements for clinical elective months required for graduation.

Non-clinical elective policies

Audit or not-for-credit electives

Some clinical and non-clinical electives are designated as Audit (or “not-for-credit”) experiences. Reasons an elective may be classified as audit could include: a clinical elective does not meet the minimum UMKC School of Medicine standards for the assignment of credit (the clinical elective does not require 3 weeks attendance or 160 hours of contact), or a student requests additional study or readings months beyond the three which are sanctioned by the UMKC medical school for credit. In these circumstances, only the Council on Curriculum may approve participation in an elective on an audit basis.

Audit or not-for-credit elective policies

Other Elective Policies