hello fellow Indian. this is what i posted a few weeks back . hope this helps. btw, observership is shadowing a physician. pt contact is none to minimum. only talking if possible, no procedures. i think u should try for clerkships in US as u are still an undergraduate. clerkships are of 3 months and are like intership rotations. obtain the websites of the med schools from this website
http://www.ama-assn.org/ama/pub/category/2997.html
then check state by state. med schools do give clerkships to foreign students. but its a very very long process and clerkships are expensive too. but they are way better than observerships. do try to get one
i think Tulane University has a clerkship program, also try the med schools in NY
as for observerships, this is the info
USCE has almost become a must these days.......and observership is better than nothing even if some programs dont considere it usce.
there are paid observerships like Mt Sinai
http://www.msmc.com/ , University of Miami
http://www6.miami.edu/UMH/CDA/UMH_Main/0...-3,00.html , Cleveland Clinic(Weston, FL)
http://my.clevelandclinic.org/florida/re...ships.aspx , UMDNJ(Camden and New Jersey). but out of these Mt Siani doesnt require ECFMG certificate , Cleveland needs certificate for Internal Med. so u can try for Mt Sinai(750$/month) and Cleveland(500$/month). but u will have to apply asap and at Mt Sinai, u need atleast one step score > 80 .
if u want to rough it out, open up FREIDA, search for programs according to states, open therir websites, email all the faculty(very few emails are given in some websites and in some websites its a jackpot with around 40-50 emails) in yr desired speciality. but its a very time consuming procedure and u also have to study for yr steps especially 2ck. so try and dont waste much time on this. but sometimes people do get lucky this way. and i really mean that, ie they get an observership without contacts.
also dig up contacts, ask yr med school professors. some people even manage to get research this way. call up private physicians(from yr country) in US cities , call them up and see if they need 'help'. also try Veteran Hospitals. but for this method to work, u probanly have to be in US as u will have to follow up at places where there is even a slight possiblity of getting an observership.
but , give the 1st PRIORITY to getting good scores in USMLE steps
Cleveland Clinic is at 2 places ma'am......Weston(FL) and Ohio.......at Weston.they need ECFMG certificate for IM .in other branches we can get without it. at Ohio i think they even need TOEFL for any branch !! just go through the links i mentioned above. i dont have the link for Cleveland Clinic Ohio, but u can search in google.
the duration of observership to be useful depends on many things.....in case of fresh graduates 1 month can be ok.in old graduates i doubt if it would be enough. but the more the better.....in any case.......no doubt about that
but u will have to apply months in advance in order to get a date before September. and in case of Cleveland , just get the payment details confirmed.....i had some doubt abt the whole thing.....u , i contacted them and they said the 500$ were for both processing and for the fees.......but after we send all the documents they must be processed in order to get the slot , right?? so if we dont get a month of our choice we will have no option but to go for the slot given to us or loose the 500$. in case of Mt Sinai, they clearly told me in September that they will charge the credit card only after we get either of the 2 slots mentioned by us in the application for, not otherwise. hope u get what i am trying to say. besides u can always call before sending the form to see if a particluar month is available or not. will save the trouble.
