(Last updated October 2008)

PART I - Steps to setting up your elective
PART II - Columbia contact list

1. START EARLY
If you are starting to think about your elective in July of your 2nd year, you are already wayyyy to late.
At latest, start thinking about it in January of your 1st year along with career/fellowship plans etc.


2. Elective time
• Remember that we do 3 compulsory rotations in Columbia already – 1 month of neurology, 1 month of cardiology and 2 months of PICU. These electives are done over 2nd and 3rd year.
• We do oncology at Memorial Sloan Kettering, though not hematology.
• You get 8 weeks of elective time, distributed over 2nd and 3rd year.
• Also bear in mind that time done in ICU is capped and is taken up by doing our NICU rotations in Harlem and PICU in Columbia. Thus, the maximum extra time that can be done in another ICU-related elective (e.g. NICU) is an extra month.


3. Choosing your elective
• Electives are usually planned based on career plans i.e. fellowships. Securing a letter of recommendation from Columbia/MSK will help with your chances at matching later on, not to mention matching at Columbia itself of course.
• Of course, you could do electives in stuff you are interested in
• Consider doing electives in areas to which we have limited/no exposure to in Harlem as well - GI, rheumatology, endocrine etc.


4. Scheduling your elective
• An elective done for letters of recommendation should be done early in 2nd year seeing as the application cycle for most electives would start in December/January of your 2nd year if you wish to start the fellowship immediately after completing 3rd year.
• Discuss with the chief early re:scheduling issues. The master schedule tends to come out late in June but you should make clear your wishes to the chief before the schedule is out about when generally you want to have your elective time scheduled.
• However, avoid doing your elective in July - the block is only 3 weeks long
• CONDITIONAL - avoid early August if you can . This is because the master schedule has been coming out late in June the past 2 years and you'll generally need to give exact dates to the folks at Columbia about when you're coming over. And the application ideally will need to be handed in at least 6-8 weeks prior to the elective making August a bit too close for comfort.. If the master schedule starts coming out early or a master-master schedule becomes a reality, this problem is resolved of course
• Avoid electives in vacation periods (e.g. Christmas/Hannukah/New Year). The service will always be there, but the number of attendings, including specific people you want to impress, such as the chief of the service might not be there. Clinics will run on a reduced schedule, elective procedures are not scheduled, etc..


5. Get in touch with Columbia early!
• Start talking to the folks at Columbia early, just let them know you are interested and ask for permission to do the elective
• They'll also be able to tell you when they would prefer you to come over and which periods to avoid. For example, there might be some congress or conference to which almost all the attendings will disappear off to for weeks at a time.


6. The paperwork
• As soon as the master schedule is out and the exact dates of your elective are known, you should get started on the paperwork
• Prepare a cover letter to go with your application
• Now go to the residency coordinator's office and ask for the monstrous Columbia application packet. Filling it out will take an entire morning. You'll need copies of your medical school diploma + translation, BLS, PALS. If you filled out one of this before for another rotation at Columbia, you can copy from the previous application
• Complete the mandatory online courses - this will probably take you a few evenings. There are 3 websites with courses which you have to complete:
  
  *Don't forget to print out the certificates after you complete them and to keep a copy. You only need to do these courses once and you will be re-using these certificates for all your Columbia rotations/electives.
  
  *This list may get outdated very quickly, e-mail the pediatric department administrator: Deborah Goins ([email protected]) to confirm that these are correct or if the links don't work.
  
  1. HIPPA and physician impairment courses
  • URL:http://nyp.elmexchange.com/ccc/intro.asp
  • Note: don't fail the course! If you fail, you have to ask the webmaster to manually reset your account to allow you to re-take the course. (I'm not sure if this applies to the other courses though, cos' I actually studied the material after this happened)
  
  
  2. Point of Care, MRI safety, & CVC courses
  • URL:http://www.proceo.com/gateway/NYP/main.htm
  3. Risk management courses
  • URL:http://ps.mcicvermont.com/
  • The subscription code to log in is: MCIC002
    
• Once you have the certificates and the application is complete, submit it to the (acting) program coordinator to have the parts of the application requiring the program director and dept. chairman signatures completed
• The (acting) coordinator will also provide the letters or reference needed for the application
• There is a checklist on the front of the application to make sure you have all elements of the packet complete. Missing sections happen fairly often.
• After the packet is complete, I recommend WALKING IT OVER TO COLUMBIA. You want it to bring it directly to the administrator to go over with you to make sure the application is complete.
• Don't forget your elective request form. This form needs to be submitted to the program director (Harlem) and requires you to prepare an attachment which needs a signature from your "elective supervisor." (Read the instructions on the form.) You can walk it over with the packet and hand it to over to the administrator with a self addressed envelope so she can mail it back to you after it gets signed.
• That's it! Show up to your elective and don't forget to ask for letters of recommendation for your fellowship application if you need them.

• Neonatology - Contact person: Dr. David Rubenstein ([email protected])
  
• Pediatric ER - Contact person: Dr. Cindy Roskind ([email protected]). Dept. administrator - Mayra Brito-Duarte ([email protected])
  
• Genetics - Contact person: Dr. Kwame Anyane-Yeboa ([email protected])