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Passport & Visa

Do you need a passport or a visa? No visas required for New Zealand.

Be aware that it usually takes several weeks to acquire a UK passport if you are a UK citizen. Allow plenty of time for this process.

No visas required for Canada. However you will be required to provide a chest x-ray, test for HIV and VDRL.

Visas required for America: medical also required. For more information on visas for America try https://uk.usembassy.gov/  Make sure you have an up to date passport.

You are reminded that, before travelling overseas, you should check the travel information provided by the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) http://www.fco.gov.uk.

Investigate these possibilities well in advance.

Travel & Culture

Have you investigated how to get to your chosen destination, how much it will cost and how long it will take?

Have you considered the cultural aspects of your trip? Will they speak English? Will their culture be completely different to the UK?

Accommodation

Do you know where you will stay, how much it will cost, how far it is from your chosen institute?

Travel Insurance

Have you arranged travel insurance? We would strongly recommend this is done as soon as your tickets are booked. Make sure you are covered for health, accidents, loss of money, tickets and valuables etc. Specific insurance policies are available for students and you should ensure you are covered for the work you will be doing.

If your elective is in Europe you should also obtain a valid free EHIC card https://www.ehic.org.uk/Internet/home.do

Indemnity Insurance

You should check whether your host institute requires indemnity insurance. The University does not cover students for work undertaken during your elective period

IT & Data

Have you considered how to collect data or which questionnaire to use? If you want advice on data collection or statistics this MUST be done before you go on elective. Advice cannot be provided remotely!

Local & Host Supervisors

Do you have your local & host supervisors in place? Have you made the host supervisor aware of the UoA requirements for the elective?Do you have all their contact details?

Project

Have you discussed your suggested topic with both local and host supervisors? Do they agree the project is feasible?

Ethics

Have you considered any ethical approval? This should be considered early on in planning as can take 6-9 months.

Health

Have you considered any health risks and referred to the relevant WHO and Government guidelines on travel.

Project Outline

Have you drafted your project outline and discussed with your supervisor? Is he/she available to sign and will it be ready to submit by the deadline?

ELECTIVE TRAVEL

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Passport, visa & tickets

Keep them somewhere safe during travel and consider where you will keep them once you arrive there

Travel & Indemnity Insurance

Make sure you take a copy of the policy with you along with the contact numbers in case of emergency. You may wish to consider a secure online server such as ekits http://www.ekit.com/ekit/home/ to store the information.

Take your EHIC card with you for European travel

Arrangements

Confirm arrangements with your host supervisor.

Let you Aberdeen supervisor know when you will be back and make provisional arrangement to show him/her a draft report, if possible.

Medical Kit

Make sure your immunisations and malaria prophylaxis are organised. If you are going to a remote area, it may be worth taking an emergency kit with you. Suggested components might include:

1. An analgesic e.g., paracetamol

2. Anti-histamine for allergies/insect bites.

3. Ciprofloxacin for travellers diarrhoea (or UTI).

4. Erythromycin or augmentin for chest/wound infections etc.

5. Sticking plasters.

6. HIV post-exposure pack (if appropriate).

7. Anti malarials for endemic areas

Memory stick

It is suggested that students carry these as backup and keep in hand luggage

If Things Go Wrong

Make sure you have a list of emergency contacts including your local embassy. It may be worth faxing or emailing a copy of your itinerary to the British embassy in the country so they can contact you in an emergency. This may be particularly worth considering in high risk or remote areas.

We would recommend you give your friends/ family details of where you are going and also of the MBChB office in case of emergency.

If you lose your passport or become involved in a crime you should report it immediately to the police and obtain a signed statement of the details and what was taken. Ensure you understand and agree with everything prior to signing, an interpreter may be required to help with this. You should inform the MBChB office and may also want to contact the embassy.

If something goes wrong with the elective placement or the arrangements change you should initially try to resolve in the host institute and contact Morag Simpson (morag.simpson@abdn.ac.uk ) (+44) 1224 437775 and/or Dr Donald Thomas (donald.thomas@nhs.net)

Money

Consider what the most suitable form of payment whilst there will be and how much you will need. You may wish to consider taking cash, credit/debit card and travellers cheques but this will be influenced on your location.

Responsibility & What To Expect

Have you considered your responsibility whilst away? It is important the patients know that you are a medical student and that you are not able to take full responsibility for their diagnosis and treatment. You should not take on the role of a qualified doctor and you are strongly recommended not to prescribe or treat patients without some supervision.

Have you investigated the type of conditions you are likely to expect and how you think you will cope with this?