5th year elective and SSC programme

All medical students undergo a period of elective study near the end of their undergraduate training. The majority of students do their electives abroad, many in developing countries. However, students usually have little preparation or training for the problems they will see, or for the cultural and linguistic context. Students therefore often experience difficulties seeing below the surface to gain real insight and understanding of the situation in which they have found themselves. Whereas the period could be a valuable chance to gain an in-depth experience of health and healthcare developing countries, students' experiences are actually highly variable. The CIHD international health elective attempts to address this issue by offering interested students a programme designed to prepare them for the elective and to help them learn from their experiences.

The International Health Elective Programme is offered to UCL medical students during the fifth year of their training. It consists of the combination of an elective period at one our partner institutions in a developing country and a Student Selected Component (SSC) in International Health. The SSC has input from a variety of disciplines: aid agencies, campaigning organisations, UCL academics and teachers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The overseas elective time takes place in Instituto Superior de Ciencas Médicas de Habana teaching hospital in Cuba. UCL is one of only two medical schools that offers electives to this destination. We encourage students to research and incorporate contextual international health issues into their elective project, based on their elective experiences in clinical rotations in hospital and community-based settings.

The main reason to do an elective and an SSC together is to help you to make the most of your experience abroad. You can always travel, but what you learn from your travel depends on how well prepared you are and who you interact with. Some students have described the SSC as helpful for "contextualising the elective experience" abroad. The contact with local medical students is beneficial socially and helps you to learn about the local culture, as well as medicine.

The international health elective programme began as a pilot in September 2001, developed in collaboration with UCL medical students.

For information on the CIHD elective to Cuba and SSC in International Health, contact the Electives Coordinator, Chris Willott, 020 7905 2299.