Tips to Find Rotations as an IMG
Written by Maya Soufan, MD
With the COVID-19 pandemic affecting the medical education and residency application process, medical school rotations were no exception. Rotations available for international medical students and graduates (IMG) in the United States (U.S.) have lessened. However, there is always a way to secure a U.S. clinical experience (USCE). Usually, these U.S. rotations are completed in the final year of medical school. However, if you opt to do a rotation after earning your diploma, this is called an externship.
You will have to open about rotating in specialties that are not your desired specialty. For example, if you are interested in internal medicine, look for internal medicine, family medicine, and pediatrics rotations. If you are only able to get a pediatrics rotation, let your letter of recommendation authors know that you are applying to internal medicine. Furthermore, you will have to consider rotating in if you have not found a hospital to rotate. However, make sure that the rotation at the clinic is hands-on and not an observership.
Below are several ways where you can find rotations and externships in the U.S.:
1. Visiting Students Learning Opportunities (VSLO) website: Create an account on the Association of American Medical Colleges website aamc.org through your medical school and search on that website for VSLO. From there, you can search for U.S. rotations and apply to them.
2. Senior Advice: Not all rotations are available on the VSLO site. Many of them can be found on the official website of a hospital. Therefore, ask recent graduates at your medical school where they completed rotations.
3. Residency Explorer: Residency explorer is a website where you can find the hospital's name and their respective website and all the information you need to know about the program, such as visa sponsorship, average credentials of applicants that matched at the program, and many others. Go to residencyexplorer.org and log in using your AAMC username and password. Then, it will ask you to enter your credentials (USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 scores, research, etc.) to compare them with other applicants that matched at the residency programs. When they ask for your visa status, choose that you are a visa requiring IMG even if you are a US citizen. It might show you that the percentage of US-IMGs in a program is low, which might create a false impression that the program is not IMG friendly. At the same time, if you searched as non-US-IMG, you would find that same program with a high number of non-US-IMGs.
After you enter your credentials and the specialty you are looking for, it will show a list of the residency programs and the percentage of IMGs in it. Click on the program's name, and it will show you all the details of the program, including the program's website. Click on their website and read about the program. Then, look for an option regarding medical education or medical student rotations. You will then find out how to apply for outside rotations at that hospital.
4. Connecting with US physicians: Ask graduates of your medical school if there are current residents in the U.S. or any fellows or attendings they can ask for you to rotate at their program. Send them your CV and USMLE Step scores if available.
5. LinkedIn and Social Media: This method is beneficial for finding externships. Type on the search bar ''clinical extern'' and see several users doing externships in the U.S. Connect with them and reach out to see if they can direct you to find opportunities. Occasionally, there are also residency programs or attending physicians publicizing opportunities to apply for rotations on their social media pages.
6. Third-party Websites: Several websites offer U.S. rotations, but there can be high costs for these rotations.
