Summer Externship Program

The purpose of the Summer Externship Program is to sponsor medical students during the summer for a period of 4 weeks to further expose early careerists to rural family medicine practice. Medical students, who are not accepted into the Summer Externship Program, are reminded that they may still organize a normal summer elective in a rural area.

The Summer Externship Program provides a grant of $1,000 per medical student, who has been approved by their UGME office and the RPAP for this experience. The RPAP will not reimburse medical students for University-mandated registration costs required to participate in the program, in order to allow more students to take advantage of this opportunity. 

Alberta Health Services (AHS) or Covenant Health may, with assistance from the preceptor's clinic, assist in making arrangements for accommodation/meals/travel for the participating student.

Selection Criteria

There are typically ten (10) positions available each year. Selection criteria includes:

• a demonstrated interest in rural medicine
• geographical disbursement of students throughout rural/regional Alberta. Excluded communities include: Edmonton, St. Albert, Sherwood Park, and Calgary, 
• initiative shown by students regarding finding a placement area
• first-time applicants given preference over students who have already experienced a summer externship
• U of A and U of C students are given priority over out-of-province students
• preference given to requests for elective locations outside of the regional centres of Lethbridge, Medicine Hat, Grande Prairie, and Red Deer.

The Summer Externship experience should offer at least three full days per week of exposure to medical practice providing experience in a clinic setting, in a hospital setting and with the multi-disciplinary team in the community. The balance of the week will be geared to the completion of a quality improvement project that contributes to the clinic or hospital in the selected location. The project need not be complicated and may simply be an audit or review agreed to between the medical student and the preceptor.

The practice experience for first and second year medical students (i.e. those in their pre-clinical years) is generally referred to as an observership. Students are permitted to shadow the preceptor; hands-on contact is only permitted when the student is under the direct guidance of the preceptor. Students in their clinical years generally have more freedom in being able to meet with patients on their own and are able to be more 'hands on". However, these students are also under the supervision of their preceptor. Students should confirm the specific functional limitations of this summer experience/elective with their UGME office.

RPAP will accept applications from interested medical students betwen 1 January and 31 March of each year. Applicants are expected to do some background research into finding a suitable preceptor and RPAP will canvas preceptors and the AHS/Covenant Health for interest. RPAP will also attempt to coordinate students, preceptors and AHS/Covenant Health faclities based on project interest and requested location.

1. Interested medical students must submit an application  Summer Externship Program APPLICATION  by 31 March that describes their desired summer externship experience, dates, location and objectives.

2. Applicants also need to obtain the written acceptance/confirmation of their UGME office before the externship experience can occur.

3. If the applicant has not secured a preceptor, RPAP will attempt to find a physician preceptor in the requested location who will be responsible for the student, and RPAP will clarify the nature of supervision/ mentoring to be provided for the observership. RPAP will also confirm access to required AHS/Covenant Health educational resources and facilities in the requested location. 

4. Upon acceptance into the program each medical student must sign and return the RPAP Letter of Agreement for the Summer Externship Program that they are sent.

5. Each student receives a grant of $1,000 from RPAP upon the submission of a final report, which includes the results of the quality improvement project. The report must be received by RPAP no later than two months following the completion of the summer externship and will be sent to the participating AHS facility and preceptor.

6. The grant  must be returned if not expended in the intended manner, and the contribution of the RPAP to this summer experience must be acknowledged in a manner satisfactory to the RPAP.

Out-of-Province Medical Students

Out-of-province medical students must follow the procedure for Out-of-Province Electives which involves registration with the College of Physicians and Surgeons of Alberta (CPSA).   In Alberta, the CPSA has requested that the elective offices of the University of Calgary (elective@ucalgary.ca) and the University of Alberta (electives@med.ualberta.ca) facilitate this.  The Universities’ electives offices ensure communication with the student’s home university.

Send the completed application by e-mail to RPAP at Alberta-RPAP@rpap.ab.ca