Professional Exchange (Clerkship)

What is a professional Exchange?

A Professional Exchange (Clerkship) is a clinical or preclinical experience abroad for medical students. The duration of a Clerkship is four weeks.
It is based on bilateral exchanges for students, organized between the NMOs (National Member Organizations) of IFMSA (www.ifmsa.org).
This project is one of IFMSA's most important ones and it was born in the second half of XX century, in order to complete medical education with both practical and cultural training.

There're more than 50 countries, member of the IFMSA, with whom SISM, organizes about 500 exchanges:
Australia, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada Quebec, Catalan Countries, Chile, Croatia, Czech Republic, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, FYROM, Germany, Ghana, Hellas, Hungary, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, Kuwait, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Mexico, Norway, Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia e Montenegro, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sudan, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tatarstan, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine…

Each country organises one annual exchange campaign inside SCOPE, Standing Committee On Professional Exchange, that is a controlling body with supervision function on the right course of the whole campaign. It decides also international bylaws, to follow in order to guarantee the same basic treatment for each country.
Every NMOs has a National Exchange Officer (NEO) who coordinates the Local Exchange Officers (LEOs). The LEOs will receive the foreign students and will introduce them to the hospital work and to the Italian culture.
So there's a sort of chain to follow in order to avoid a mess: the student must contact his LEO, who will contact his NEO. This one will contact the Hosting NEO, who will contact the Hosting LEO.

SISM is a national association subdivided in local committees that strictly collaborate with university professors and doctors, so that they can offer the most plastic hospital work as possible, depending on the need of the foreign student hosted: he'll present a preference for city and department, and once he'll be in Italy, he'll decide what kind of work he desire to do inside the department (for example laboratory activity or surgery etc.).
The student will meet a different approach to patients, and will live the daily work together with both Italian doctors and students coming from different countries, practicing in Italy with the same project.

Each local committee will arrange at least a bedroom and 1 meal a day, as requested by the international bylaws, but each local committee can decide to offer more, as 2 meals-a-day or pocket money.
After 4 weeks of practice the student will receive an IFMSA certificate for the work he did, with an official value and a different degree of acknowledgement in most universities globally.

How to apply for a professional Exchange in Italy?

To take part to a clinical experience in Italy with this project you must first check if your country has a medical students' association member of IFMSA. To do this you have to look at the web page about all NMOs features: http://www.ifmsa.org/scope/ec.htm. Then you have to look at the web site of your NMO country and ask more information directly to the LEO in your university.
In the same page you can check the Exchange Conditions to make a Clerkship in Italy: these are basic rules to join the project, decided for the whole country.
Our Italian Officers will be contacted directly from the ones of your country, so that you can obtain your information in the shortest time possible and the National Officers will be able to work at best by collaborating only among them.

All the SISM students are happy to welcome you in our country, so don't lose time now: just join us and come :). We're waiting for you!