{"id":5,"date":"2008-02-18T00:16:25","date_gmt":"2008-02-18T04:16:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T16:22:56","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:22:56","slug":"setupelective","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Set Up a Fourth-Year GH Elective"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><b>[ Related links:<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/travelgrants\/\">Travel Grants for M4 Students&#8230;.<strong>$<\/strong><\/a> <b>|<\/b> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/responsibilities\/\">Required Responsibilities for Students Undertaking GH Electives<\/a> <b>]<\/b><\/p>\n<p><strong>What is the Global Health Elective at the School of Medicine?<\/strong><br \/>\nThe global health (GH) elective is for fourth-year medical students interested in undertaking a<em> minimum of four weeks<\/em> of clinical or research work abroad for credit. The elective exposes students to diseases, treatments, medical systems, and patient populations in other parts of the world with an emphasis on low-resource settings. Students must be conversant with the language spoken in the host country unless there is a provision for interpreters or the elective is dedicated to language acquisition.<\/p>\n<p>Questions may be directed to <a href=\"mailto:anagreg@bu.edu\">Ana Gregory<\/a>.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 1: Complete &#8220;Part 1 The Big Picture&#8221; of the Practitioner&#8217;s Guide to Global Health<\/h3>\n<p>Each medical student who undertakes a global health elective is required to complete the Practitioner&#8217;s Guide to Global Health, a three-part course that prepares students to safely and effectively participate in global health learning experiences (GHLE). The Practitioner\u2019s Guide is a Blackboard course for which you must be enrolled to complete the material. <a href=\"mailto:anagreg@bu.edu\">Email Ana Gregory<\/a> to obtain access.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\">To be completed now: <\/span><strong>Part 1 \u201cThe Big Picture\u201d<\/strong> will help you step back and think about the &#8220;why\/when\/where\/how&#8221; of considering and partaking in a GHLE. Part 1 is designed to be completed\u00a0<strong>6-12 months<\/strong> in advance.<\/li>\n<li>To be completed before you travel: <strong>Part 2 \u201cPreparation and On the Ground\u201d<\/strong> is the \u201cnuts and bolts\u201d of the course, as it will help you prepare for your GHLE and think about common issues that arise when you are in the field. Part 2 is designed to be completed<strong>\u00a01-3 months<\/strong> in advance.<\/li>\n<li>To be completed upon your return: <strong>Part 3 \u201cReflection\u201d <\/strong>will help you prepare to return\u00a0home,\u00a0and to begin thinking about your future involvement in global health. Part 3 is designed to be completed\u00a0<strong>just prior to your return<\/strong>\u00a0and will take approximately\u00a0<strong>2 hours<\/strong>\u00a0to complete.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Step 2: Read Global Health Equity Article<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>Read the following article. <span>\u201cThis article offers 10 guiding questions that learners should answer before selecting or codesigning a global health opportunity through a lens of global health equity.\u201d <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov\/pmc\/articles\/PMC10516162\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Ten Questions to Guide Learners Seeking Equitable Global Health Experiences Abroad<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Step 3: Identify Elective Site<\/h3>\n<p>The School of Medicine has a few established affiliations (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/inside-bu-electives\/\">&#8220;inside electives&#8221;<\/a>), but students may choose other elective sites (&#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/outside-electives\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000cc;\">outside electives&#8221;<\/span><\/a>) with approval from Dr. Leanza, Director of Global Health Programs.<\/p>\n<p>Thus, students may choose:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/inside-bu-electives\/\">Inside B.U. Electives<\/a> (approved\/established relationship) OR<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/outside-electives\/\"><span style=\"color: #0000cc;\">Outside Electives<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Students may start setting up GH electives after the annual third-year class meeting &#8220;Developing a Fourth-Year Schedule.&#8221; Following the publication of fourth-year schedules of required rotations, the exact dates for GH electives may be arranged.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Students may add GH electives to their fourth-year schedules no later than 6 weeks before the start date of the elective<\/em><\/strong>, the minimum time required to complete <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/responsibilities\/\">mandatory responsibilities<\/a> before departure.<\/p>\n<p><span><span><strong>Restrictions:\u00a0<\/strong><\/span><\/span>Boston University Chobanian &amp; Avedisian School of Medicine<span>\u00a0GH Program will not give academic credit for, pay for, supervise, direct, or otherwise support a medical student in a country where a\u00a0<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/travel.state.gov\/content\/travel\/en\/traveladvisories\/traveladvisories.html\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. State Department Travel Warning<\/a><span> of level 3 or 4 is in effect unless otherwise approved. See <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/files\/Travel_Warning_Policy.pdf\">Travel Warning Policy<\/a><span>.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3>Step 4: Contact the Elective Site and Confirm<\/h3>\n<p>Contact the elective site about your elective. Discuss the following:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Dates of your elective<\/li>\n<li>Your responsibilities as a member of the team<\/li>\n<li>Language requirements (students must be conversant with the language of the host country unless there is a provision for translators)<\/li>\n<li>Goals and learning objectives of the elective<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Some elective sites require a letter of good standing from the student&#8217;s medical school in order to accept the student for an elective. This may be obtained from the medical school Registrar. See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/busm\/education\/registrars-office\/request-forms\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Request for Verification of Student Status.<\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Step 5: Send Your ADD Form to Ana Gregory Electronically<\/h3>\n<p>Download and complete the <a href=\"\/ghbusm\/files\/2012\/05\/add_form_GH.doc\">ADD Form for GH Elective<\/a>. Send the document <b><i>electronically<\/i><\/b> to <a href=\"mailto:anagreg@bu.edu\">Ana Gregory.<\/a> The ADD form <i>must be completed entirely<\/i> or it will not be accepted by the registrar.<\/p>\n<p><i>Do not submit <\/i>a blank ADD Form with &#8220;Global Health Elective&#8221; indicated (and no evaluator information). If you do not have all the information for the ADD Form, you may indicate &#8220;Global Health Elective&#8221; on the schedule that your advisor will sign. Paper add forms provided by the registrar for other BU electives are not accepted by the Global Health Program.<\/p>\n<p>Once the ADD form is received and approved by Ana Gregory (and you have submitted the liability form &#8211; step #5), it is sent to the registrar who will add the elective to your fourth-year schedule.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 6: Submit the Waiver of Liability Form (online)<\/h3>\n<p>In order for your elective to receive final approval, you must complete the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/acknowledgement-and-waiver-of-liability\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">waiver of liability form<\/a>. You will receive a confirmation after completion.<\/p>\n<h3>Step 7: Request E-mail of Acceptance (for New Outside Electives)<\/h3>\n<p>If you plan to undertake an outside elective that has not been undertaken by a medical student in the past (see <a href=\"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/setupelective\/outside-electives\/\">Outside Electives<\/a> for explanation), an e-mail of acceptance from the host institution\/mentor is required. This e-mail must be sent to <a href=\"mailto:anagreg@bu.edu\">Ana Gregory<\/a> and include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Title of elective<\/li>\n<li>Exact dates of elective<\/li>\n<li>Complete address\/contact information of sponsoring institution and mentor*<\/li>\n<li>Whether or not the site regularly hosts students<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>* be sure to obtain full contact information for the physician who will be supervising and evaluating you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>[ Related links: Travel Grants for M4 Students&#8230;.$ | Required Responsibilities for Students Undertaking GH Electives ] What is the Global Health Elective at the School of Medicine? The global health (GH) elective is for fourth-year medical students interested in undertaking a minimum of four weeks of clinical or research work abroad for credit. The [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":910,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/910"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5"}],"version-history":[{"count":51,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3436,"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5\/revisions\/3436"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bumc.bu.edu\/ghbusm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}