Clinical Electives in the Americas and the Caribbean

• Internal medicine

Yale medical students will participate in rounds with the medical team, attend outpatient clinics, as well as round on the in-patient service units. In addition, there may be opportunities to observe and compare clinical activities at other community based public hospitals.
Students are required to speak Spanish on an intermediate-advanced level or higher to maximize their experience in Cordoba. Students that do not meet the intermediate-advanced level may complete language lessons as part of their clinical rotation.

Recent participants

2025

• Soraya Fereydooni

• Advanced primary care

The Chinle Comprehensive Health Care Facility (CCHCF) is based in Chinle, Arizona (Northeast Arizona near Canyon De Chelly National Monument). The CCHCF is a 60-bed hospital which serves as the health care hub for the region. The medical staff includes family physicians, internists, pediatricians, general surgeons, OBGYNs, anesthesiologists, and a psychiatrist. Healthcare services are provided to approximately 37,000 active users. Strong Navajo cultural traditions exist within the community, offering an opportunity to learn the Navajo language, or to learn about traditional Navajo medicine.

This Advanced Primary Care Elective is supervised by Jillian Mandor, MD, and colleagues provides an opportunity to work with Navajo on the reservation in a rural setting. Students appreciate working with traditional Native American healers in a remote, beautiful landscape, addressing health needs created by poverty and injustice. Clinical rotations at CCHCF are 4 weeks long.

Recent participants

2025

• Chaney Kalinich

2024

• Kailey Carson

• Advanced primary care
• Duration: 4 weeks (priority is given to students requesting to do their Primary Care Clerkship at this site - students interested in the SFFC elective or clerkship opportunity, please contact John.Genest@yale.edu)

SFFC was founded in 1993 by two family physicians. Recognizing that in a city of great medical resources, many people still went without care due to lack of insurance, the founders opened the free clinic to care specifically for this population. Drs. Richard and Tricia Gibbs closed their successful private practice and moved all their equipment into a modest townhouse in the Richmond District of San Francisco. Their next step was to seek support from the medical community. The response was overwhelming. Hundreds of physicians and several hospitals and other medical facilities offered to provide their services free of charge to clinic patients.

This Advanced Primary Care elective is offered to senior students who are expected to assume full responsibility for their patients under the supervision of expert attendings. Typically, students will perform a history and physical exam, formulate a complete assessment, and present the case to the attending.

After discussing the case, the student will perform the wrap-up, e.g., answer questions, agree on a management plan, follow-up, diagnostic tests, and medications.

Students will find this an excellent opportunity to refresh and hone clinical ambulatory skills before Internship. Clinical rotations at SFFC are 4 weeks long.

• Family medicine, emergency medicine

PUC is a private not-for-profit university in Santiago, Chile which includes health professional schools in the fields of medicine, nursing, and dentistry. The medical school is viewed as the top school in the country is currently part of an international seven school educational consortium directed by the ECFMG.

The medical school has a seven-year curriculum whereby students enter after high school and receive elements of undergraduate education combined with a foundation in biomedical science. The medical students have a gradually increasing clinical experience and the final two years are referred to as internship and resemble the clinical rotations during the latter years at Yale School of Medicine.

Yale students will work in teams that include interns (6th and 7th year students) from PUC as attending physicians, similar to the US. At PUC, students have an opportunity to experience family-based primary care for large populations of patients, emergency care in a large public hospital, or primary care in a private teaching clinic with resources focused on student education.

Students must speak Spanish on an intermediate-advanced level or higher, language assessment required. Clinical rotations at PUC are 4 weeks long.

Recent participants

2024

• Jonathan Kluger

• All areas of medicine

Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá is a private social entity whose mission is to lead and positively influence the health sector and contribute to the well-being of individuals and communities. For more than 40 years, the Foundation has worked to build superior value for patients, families and visitors. The Fundación Santa Fe de Bogotá was founded by two Yale School of Medicine alumni.

Students can rotate at the FSFB main hospital or at the rural primary care clinic just outside Bogotá. Both clinical sites demonstrate an commitment to patient-centered care and patient safety. In addition to learning about the specialty they choose for their clinical elective, students will have the opportunity to meet leaders at the hospital to learn how they ensure their clinical programs demonstrate the values of patient-centered care and patient safety.

Clinical rotation sites are available depending on the student’s particular interests. Students are required to have an intermediate-advanced level or higher of fluency in Spanish.

Recent participants

2025

• Darius Mostaghimi
• Teimur Kayani

• Family medicine
• Yale Mentor – Tracy Rabin, MD
• Duration: 4 weeks

The Shiprock Service Unit (SRSU) is the largest geographical service-unit of Navajo Area Indian Health Service (NAIHS). SRSU population extends into New Mexico, Arizona, and Utah. The scope of SRSU’s responsibility is extensive and includes administrative oversight of one hospital: NNMC and two health centers: Four Corners Regional Health Center and Dzilth-Na-O-Dith-Hle Health Center.

NNMC Northern Navajo Medical Center (NNMC) was opened on February 3, 1995 and is the main administrative center and medical center for SRSU. NNMC is a 60-bed medical center and has one of the largest patient volumes in the NAIHS.

NNMC medical staff provides care the following areas primary and specialty care services in inpatient and outpatient care services: medical-surgical, pediatric inpatient, labor and delivery, intensive care units, internal medicine, family practice, urgent and emergency care, women's health, mental health, pharmacy, optometry, dental, radiology, public health nursing, medical social services, health promotion/disease prevention and traditional medicine.

• Family medicine

For students interested in learning more about rural health in the United States. Clinical rotations in Grundy County are 4 or 6 weeks long.

Rotations are in the following locations:

• Mountain Medical Clinic
• Sewanee Pediatric & Adolescent Medicine
  
• Monteagle Internal Medicine clinic

With a population of just under 14,000, Grundy County is home of a vast recreational wilderness known as the South Cumberland State Park. Most of Grundy County is atop the Cumberland Plateau, averaging a height of around 1,800 feet above sea level. It is also the poorest county in the state, with the median household income at about $25,000, nearly half of what the median household income is for the state of Tennessee.

Recent participants

2025

• Harry Doernberg