Medical Student Education

We offer a variety of opportunities for students interested in learning about pediatrics at Yale School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.

As a Department, we are dedicated to providing trainees with outstanding educational experiences in the care of children starting as early in training as possible. During the first years of medical school, students will meet and learn from pediatric faculty during basic and clinical sciences courses as well as in the clinical setting. Opportunities include active involvement in the Pediatric Interest Group run by medical students and mentored by faculty in our department, the Buddies Program which matches students with pediatric patients having chronic diseases and in the context of clinical skills training.

The Department of Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine is committed to building a diverse workforce of future pediatricians who are ready to serve the needs of all children. To this end, we have established the Grover Powers, MD Yale Pediatrics Funded Visiting Elective Program for Underrepresented in Medicine, a four-week, funded externship for fourth year medical students in U.S. medical schools. Applicants must be from groups underrepresented in medicine which includes: Groups underrepresented in medicine as defined by the AAMC (e.g. Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, Alaskan Native and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander), socially, economically, or educationally disadvantaged, and others whose backgrounds and experiences would diversify their clinical fields.

Grover Powers, MD Yale Pediatrics Funded Visiting Elective Program to Enhance Workforce Diversity provides a $2,000 stipend to offset the costs of elective registration, travel and housing in the New Haven area.

• Please click here to access the application for the Grover Powers, MD Yale Pediatrics Funded Visiting Elective Program to Enhance Workforce Diversity.
• Applicants also must complete the VSAS application at this link and are encouraged to apply to multiple options and rotation dates.
• Applications will be accepted through August 31, 2023 but admissions to the program will be rolling to allow for summer rotations.

Please contact Dr. Marietta Vazquez (marietta.vazquez@yale.edu) AND Manmeet Virdee (manmeet.virdee@yale.edu) with any questions you may have about the Grover Powers, MD Yale Pediatrics Funded Visiting Elective Program to Enhance Workforce Diversity.

The Pediatric Clerkship integrated with the Ob/Gyn Clerkship and is now part of the Women’s & Children’s Health 12-week Clerkship. Students will start in either the Women’s Health component of the clerkship or the Children’s Health component of the clerkship and then switch after six weeks.

Week one of the 12-week block will include a day of shared curriculum during which all of the School of Medicine clerkship students participate in a clinical skills activity. During the 12-week period, all Women’s and Children’s health clerkship students will come together for three shared didactic lectures on topics pertinent to both Women’s Health & Children’s Health. Didactic sessions will include Clinical Reasoning Workshops and Simulation Sessions.

During the Children’s Health component of the clerkship, students will spend three weeks on an inpatient unit as part of a team and three weeks in an outpatient setting in either a primary care setting or a subspecialty area if a student has an interest and has already had exposure to pediatric primary care in the Primary Care Clerkship.

During the Women’s Health component of the clerkship, students will rotate for two weeks in an ambulatory setting, including some sub-specialty clinics; two weeks will be spent on the Gynecology service with exposure to Gynecologic-Oncology; and two weeks will be spent on Obstetrics for day and/or night float.

At the end of the 12-week rotation all students will come together for an Objective Structured Clinical Examination (OSCE) that will cover both OB/Gyn and Pediatric topics and held at the Yale Center for Medical Simulation.

Each year, senior students come to our department for advanced electives. These students come from Yale School of Medicine and from around the world. We offer advanced electives in many of our sub-specialties.

Elective experiences for international students are run through the Office of International Medical Student Education. To find our more information about electives for international students wishing to come to Yale visit the Elective Program website.

Students from schools in the United States other than Yale can find out more information about electives by visiting the Program Eligibility website.

Yale students can find out more details about pediatric electives by visiting the Pediatrics section of the Elective Catalog.

If you have further questions about clinical elective opportunities please contact Dr. Uma Phatak MD,MHS, Director of the Electives Program in the Department of Pediatrics.

The Department offers a sub-internship in pediatrics during which students, under supervision of faculty and residents, take on primary responsibility for the care of patients in our inpatient settings. We have orientation and a specific curriculum to guide the sub-intern experience.

If you have further questions about sub-internship opportunities please contact Dr. Heather Dahlquist, Director of the Sub-internship Program in the Department of Pediatrics.