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Updated: Aug 24th 2009



Wednesday, August 8, 2007

Caution: New York States 12-Week Clerkship Rule

New York State has a rather curious rule regarding clerkships done during medical school !

This rule states that if a medical student spends more than 12 weeks doing clerkship / elective rotations outside the country of the Medical school, then that student is barred from residency / fellowship training within the state of New York.

Now, IMGs and IMGs-to-be must take special note of this rule, since Residencies in New York state happen to be one of the most IMG-friendly states - I mean you would not want to lose eligibility in that state. Anyways, I don't imagine many IMGs actually getting outside clerkship permissions for more than 12 weeks.

Note: Apparently the rule applies only when you do clerkships WITHIN the state of New York for more than 12 weeks - like clarified by 'Nika' in the comments below - Thanks to Nika for the update, do read the comment below.


I first read about this on the Internal Medicine Residency website of Albany Medical Center , which piqued my curiosity and made me dig more on the Internet about it.
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18 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Shruthi said...

hi yes thats true.....but just to reconfirm theres no problem in doing exactly 12 weeks right ?

Digitaldoc, MD said...

I guess not :-)

December 24, 2007 6:56 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i have done 4 months of clerkships in USA, am i ineligible to apply for residency in New York State...and these electives are not considered by university...the official clerkship certificate will never show this....so can you advice me regading this...?

December 25, 2007 7:05 AM  
Blogger Digitaldoc, MD said...

Do those clerkships appear on your Medical School Transcript ? - coz 'clerkships' in their formal definition are done during medical school and would appear on the transcript. If not, then probably it would not matter. If they do appear, I am not sure at what point they do the check-up - but you would probably wanna call up the NY medical board to get confirmation on that one

December 25, 2007 10:52 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

hi there!

now thats quite ambiguous!! even though you have created an amazing website for helping residency aspirants...;)
---
these electives you mention are not to be of >12 weeks if they are done "PRIOR TO RECEIVING YOUR MEDICAL DEGREE!!!!!.
after you get your degree you can do TONS of electives if you want to!!

just a simple clarification..

keep up the good work.

March 12, 2008 1:19 PM  
Blogger Digitaldoc, MD said...

Thank you for the comment :-)

Now the crux of the situation is once you get your med. school degree and graduate, you are no longer eligible for electives - since electives would need a current 3 or 4th year medical school status

Though After graduation - Observerships & externships are possible

March 12, 2008 3:05 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

i really cannot understand the reason for this rule... first they require USCE so you can be better elegible for a residency, now they say more than 12 weeks is too much...

April 6, 2008 11:57 AM  
Blogger Digitaldoc, MD said...

Absurdities is another aspect of "Life"...lol

But on a more serious note, its different policy-making bodies at play...

April 7, 2008 10:42 AM  
Anonymous Nika said...

I phoned the NYSED (new york state education dept) at Tel # : 518-474-3817 ext. 560 and I was reassured that having done 19 weeks outside of my european medical school does not bar me from applying for residency in new york. It only matters whether you exeed 12 weeks of rotations in the state of new york, which I haven't done. Just wanted to clarify this.

October 16, 2008 9:50 PM  
Blogger Digitaldoc, MD said...

Thanks for the clarification ! Will add that to this post . g/l

October 16, 2008 10:42 PM  
Blogger heart said...

sir i m graduated from armenia an rightnow doing my internship in india and meanwhile planning for clerkship in u.s especially in nyc will it creat anysort of problem regarding getting residency in u.s

October 20, 2008 5:02 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

sir/madam, I am graduted from N.T.R University of Health Sciences,doing my internship in INDIA.I intend to do my clerkship in U.S. I will be grateful if you let me know the names of the Hospitals in u.s.accepting for international students?

October 31, 2008 1:02 AM  
Anonymous ini D said...

SO are we clear that doing more than 12 weeks in NY is only valid for electives done in medical school BEFORE u graduate?! i plan to start an externship in nYC come january but already have 3 months of electives from when i was in medical school.

November 16, 2008 10:55 PM  
Anonymous Matt said...

I just rang the board and they said that it doesn't matter where you do the 12 weeks, its just if its outside of your country of medical school.

Its a shame that this rule is so ambiguous. I'm trying to maximise my chances of getting a US residency by doing a research placement at NYU hopefully this summer, but this means I can't do my elective in 6th year abroad without ruling myself out from new york, which is ultimately where I want to work when I graduate.

I wonder if anyone can get some written confirmation of what this rule allows and doesn't.

December 16, 2008 7:54 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

digitaldoc plz find out wat is going on with this rule and give us a firm aswer cauz wat you wrote above according to member nika seems to be wrong

December 26, 2008 11:25 AM  
Anonymous blogman said...

Hey digitaldoc,let me ask you one crucial question.I think that NY state department of health verifies credentials through the ecfmg certificate.if sbdy did more than 12 w electives but were not for credit these do not appear on this certificate,so he would not have any problem.Is this right??

December 30, 2008 11:21 AM  
Blogger pradyumna said...

hi....i am an indian medical student in 3rd year of medical school..(so i have one more year of 4th year....and an year of internship before i get my mbbs degree)...in 2 months i am gonna enter 4th year....i would like to do a clerkship in us in medicine.....could u please help me out..and guide me as to what i have to do...?

August 24, 2009 6:15 AM  

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