#  2.14 Rules Governing Other Educational Experiences 

 



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## Away Electives 

“Away” electives (those taken at another LCME-accredited medical school) cannot fulfill core clerkship requirements. *All core clerkships, as well as the required subinternship and 3 advanced clinical electives (12 weeks) must be taken at HMS.*

- Students planning on more than 3 months of away elective time must have approval from their Academic Society Advisory Dean or Advisor.
- No more than 5 months of electives may be done as away electives.
- Students may not do an away elective if they have any unresolved unsatisfactory grades in any HMS course.
- Students are limited to no more than two clinical electives representing the same course in the same medical/surgical discipline, including away rotations. Students who choose to take more than two will not receive additional academic credit (i.e., neurosurgery electives at HMS, Hopkins and UCSF only count as 2 electives).
- Students must have completed the PCE prior to taking away clinical electives.
- To do a rotation at a non-LCME-accredited institution (i.e., a foreign medical school), a student must contact the Office of Scholarly Engagement for more information and must register for academic credit with the HMS Registrar’s Office.
- No grade is recorded on the HMS transcript for an away elective; only the designation of "CR" (credit awarded towards the degree) is recorded.
- Credit is only awarded upon receipt of the final evaluation of the experience as satisfactorily completed.
- The student is responsible for requesting that the "away" institution submit the final evaluation directly to the HMS Registrar's Office.

### Qualified Multilingual Assessment Policy

The rich linguistic diversity in the Boston area and local efforts to comply with regulations around meaningful language access in health care have created a need to certify students who are able to engage in direct patient care with non-English speaking patients without an interpreter. The HMS Medical Language Program within the Office of Scholarly Engagement (OSE) has developed a process for HMS medical students with sufficient non-English language skills to take an oral language proficiency assessment. If the student passes the assessment, they will obtain certification to engage in clinical care without an interpreter. The OSE arranges voluntary language assessments through approved vendors for students who self-report very good or excellent oral language skills. Passing the assessment does not signify that the student has the skills to interpret in the target language but does permit the student to provide care in the patient’s language. When a student passes the language assessment, the OSE will provide a visible symbol for the student to wear and will communicate the results to the affiliated hospitals that have a qualified bilingual staff program. If a student does not pass the language assessment, the OSE will provide a list of possible language training opportunities and allow the student to retake the assessment once after at least 6 months of study.

Information about the process for obtaining [Language Fluency Qualification for Patient Interactions](https://meded.hms.harvard.edu/medical-languages) can be found on the [Medical Language Program site](https://meded.hms.harvard.edu/medical-languages).

Updated 11/18/24