Pre-clerkship Emergency Medicine electives are a great way to gain exposure to the field and help you decide if the specialty is right for you. Below you will find information on the various types of electives you can pursue in the ED during your first and second years of medical school:

1) TOH Department of Emergency Medicine Pre-Clerkship Elective – 10 hours

Pre-clerkship electives in TOH Emergency Medicine are limited to allow for optimal learner experiences – these electives are assigned by a random lottery. Information about the non-mandatory pre-clerkship elective lottery are distributed in January with acceptance emails being sent out in February to lottery winners. Non-mandatory electives generally are available in spring months, due to the high volume of senior electives from September to February.

The students will shadow a staff physician or senior resident. They typically will not see patients by themselves or perform procedures on patients.

For questions about non-mandatory pre-clerkship electives, please contact EMIG. Please refrain from contacting the Department of Emergency Medicine as the faculty cannot assign electives outside of the official lottery process.

2) Mandatory 2nd year observerships (“Clinical Week”) – 20 hours

The mandatory pre-clerkship elective occurs during second year student’s Mandatory Clinical Week or Spring break time, as per the academic schedule. There are limited spaces available, and so students are picked via lottery. Students who wish to complete their placement at in TOH Emergency Medicine can enter the Clinical Week lottery beginning in December, with acceptance emails being sent out in January to lottery winners.

The student will receive an evaluation at the end of their elective. The students are also expected to evaluate the elective and must send this evaluation to Ms. Margaret King before they will be credited for the elective. Students must bring an evaluation form during their final shift of the elective.

3) Community Pre-clerkship Electives

Due to the extremely high demand for EM electives at TOH, we have prepared a database of hospitals in neighbouring communities. Smaller community emergency departments can be extremely valuable learning opportunities for medical students in early years of training.

Community EM Electives Database

Cancelling an Elective:

After the student is notified of an elective, they must contact the staff or resident they have been paired with to set the schedule during the subsequent month. If the student is unable to do the elective within the following month, they must notify Margaret King immediately, who will assign another student to the elective.

Elective Medical Student Guidelines for Clinical Shifts: 

• Please arrive promptly and dressed appropriately. Hospital scrubs are generally appropriate for placements in emergency medicine.
• Find the area of the Emergency Department that you will be working in. If you do not know which area your staff is in, the clerk at the main nursing station can generally find out from the staff schedule and point you in the right direction.
• Locate and introduce yourself to your staff.
• Discuss goals for the shifts and preceptor expectations.