Visiting Medical Students

The School of Medicine requires an approved affiliation agreement with your home institution to allow for participation in the Visiting Student Program. The approved agreement must be in place no later than 14 days before the start date of your rotation.

All requests to establish affiliation agreements must be submitted by an appropriate home school representative only, via email to visitingwfusom@wakehealth.edu.

The request should include:

• Official name of the institution or school of medicine
• Location of institution or school of medicine
• Type of program (i.e., MD, DO)
• Length of program
• Compelling educational reason to establish agreement
• Home representative or institution contact information

All students who apply to the Visiting Student Program must upload the following information to their VSAS application before it will be reviewed:

• Curriculum vitae
• Academic transcript
• Photo
• Copy of Professional Liability Certificate of Coverage or statement from home school on letterhead indicating coverage limits and dates of coverage (minimum of $1 million per instance, and $3 million in total).

Some programs may require the submission of additional requirements which includes:

• Two letters of recommendation from a faculty member with whom the student has worked in an inpatient setting (two outpatient letters are acceptable for those students applying to a research elective). The letter should address the clinical skills and abilities of the student. 
• Statement of education goals for elective experience at the School of Medicine. This should specify your objectives for the elective experience.
• Copy of passing scores from the Step 1 – USMLE (copy of NBME results) or COMLEX for osteopathic medical students.

There will be additional requirements when you accept an elective rotation. More information will be provided at that time by email.

Students must be aware of the following requirements that impact the consideration of their application for a rotation:

• Wake Forest School of Medicine programs will limit approving visiting student rotations in any specialty to one per learner.   Example – if a visiting student requests two or more rotations in a specialty, such as cardiology, the student would be limited to one rotation in that specialty.
• Accepted students may be displaced and their rotation canceled if the health system has a shortage of PPE, a surge in COVID patients which impacts services within the health system, and/or other unforeseen conditions.

Visiting students who are approved will need to provide documentation that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (i.e. have received an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine series) at least 2 weeks prior to beginning the rotation.

Our catalog becomes visible on April 1st with the ability to apply to electives starting on April 15th and running until May 31st. All approved visiting students must adhere to the School of Medicine Year 4 rotation schedule start dates with the exception of surgery subspecialty clerkships who are part of a flexible start date program. Reach out to the respective clerkship coordinators for more information.

The Scholarship Clerkship Program for Visiting Medical Students is administered by the School of Medicine’s Office of Student Inclusion and Diversity.

This program is designed to promote diversity in the residency programs at the School of Medicine and annually offers scholarship assistance to visiting fourth-year medical students rotating in:

Due to the impact of the health care precautions related to COVID-19 on the opportunity to provide clinical electives, the administration of Wake Forest Baptist Health, Wake Forest School of Medicine, and our affiliated graduate/training programs suspended the participation in electives by visiting final year medical students who are enrolled in programs outside of the United States through June 30, 2022. Email Lynn Snyder, program coordinator for global health, at lsnyder@wakehealth.edu for more information.

We provide badge buddies to all students, which include helpful contact information you may need while you are here as a student.

The badge buddies share our Student Affairs motto and information on how to report mistreatment or learning environment issues, although we are confident you will enjoy your time here!

• Approved visiting students will need to provide documentation that they are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 (i.e., have received an FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine or vaccine series) at least 2 weeks prior to beginning the rotation.
• Will adhere to current institutional policies on masking and social distancing. 
• Adhere to institutional, CDC and North Carolina state guidelines.
• Self-monitor for symptoms.
• Provide information as soon as possible about exposures that may affect patients, other students, faculty or staff at WFBH facilities.
• Proceed as noted below for any suspected exposures.

If a learner has a suspected COVID-19 exposure:

• Learners will need to report potential workplace exposures to our Employee Health Portal, by email at EmployeeHealth@wakehealth.edu or by telephone at 336-716-4801, option 2, and will follow the guidance of the Employee Health staff from that point forward.
  

COVID-19 exposures that occur off-campus away from WFBH facilities

• Learners will be required to connect with home institution before reporting to clinical duties

If a learner is symptomatic:

• They must not report to the clinical area
• They should notify their preceptor
• They should report symptoms through the Employee Health Portal, by email at EmployeeHealth@wakehealth.edu or by telephone at 336-716-4801, option 2, and follow the guidance of the Employee Health staff from that point forward.