Electives Information

Acting Internship

Prerequisites

• Successful completion (passing) all six core clerkships.
• M4 status.
• M3s will be also eligible on a case by case basis (must be pre-approved by a student affairs dean).

Requirements

• AI must be a minimum of 4 weeks.
• All AI’s must contain a significant inpatient/hospital component.

• All AI’s must provide the student with primary care responsibility for a panel of patients with direct supervision by an attending physician or upper level resident.  The student cannot be supervised by an intern.
• It is highly preferred that the AI requires the student to have call responsibilities (Emergency Medicine acting internships must include night shifts).

• AI will be in Family Medicine, General Internal Medicine, General Pediatrics, Med/Peds, Obstetrics and Gynecology, General Surgery or Emergency Medicine.

• Alternative acting internships that can satisfy the AI graduation requirement will only be allowed in specialties that students directly match into without the need of a preliminary year residency requirement (for example, Urology) and usually require multiple away rotations to be competitive for residency match.

• These AI experiences must meet all of the above AI curricular requirements and must be approved by a student affairs dean.
• AI rotations must be completed either on one of the Texas A&M COM campuses or at an outside institution that is LCME accredited and/or an ACGME accredited residency program site. If the student opts to complete the AI at an outside institution, she/he MUST submit a SIE request to a student affairs dean the who will review the goals and objectives of the AI from the other school’s course catalog or the SIE documented goals and objectives, listed faculty oversight, etc. and determine if these are of sufficient rigor, prior to approving.  No AI done at an outside institution will be accepted as fulfilling the curricular graduation requirement if it was not pre-approved by a student affairs dean.

Example of an acceptable alternative AI experience

• Urology AI from Duke fulfills the above requirements:
  • SURGERY-451C. Sub-Internship in Urologic Surgery. Students will participate in the diagnosis, management, and surgical treatment of patients with urologic disorders. Sub-internship students will take on intern-level responsibilities, including daily management of inpatients, clinic responsibilities, participation in surgery, and overnight call. Please contact Dr. Rampersaud at rampersaud@duke.edufor more information and to obtain your permission number. Prerequisite: Permission is required. Credit: 5. Enrollment max: 3. Edward Rampersaud, MD; and urology staff.

Examples of unacceptable alternative AI experiences

• Psychiatry and Neurology have a significant general medicine emphasis in PGY 1 and will not be included as alternative acting internship opportunities.
• Alternative acting internships will not include specialties that require an initial preliminary intern year before starting the specialty residency as a PGY-2 (for example, Ophthalmology).
• Alternative acting internships will not include specialties that offer integrated programs combining a traditional preliminary year with their residency, they will be treated like a specialty that require a preliminary year residency before starting the core residency (for example, Anesthesiology).

Summary lists of specialties that fulfill or do not fulfill AI requirements

List 1:  AI in these specialties fulfills AI requirements

(*) indicates AI electives that must be pre-approved by a student affairs dean

• Emergency Medicine
• Family Medicine
• Internal Medicine
• Neurological Surgery (*)
• Obstetrics-Gynecology
• Orthopedic Surgery (*)
• Otolaryngology (*)
• Pediatrics
• General Surgery
• Urology (*)

List 2: AI in these specialties does not fulfill AI requirements

• Anesthesiology
• Dermatology
• Interventional Radiology
• Neurology (pediatric and adult)
• Ophthalmology
• Pathology
• Physical Medicine & Rehab
• Plastic Surgery (Integrated)
• Psychiatry
• Radiology-Diagnostic
• Thoracic Surgery
• Any specialty not listed in List 1