Clinical Elective
The purpose of the clinical traineeship is to gain initial experience of patient care in outpatient, clinical and GP facilities (i.e. the clinical traineeship must be directly related to patient care). You can find the most important information about the clinical traineeship below.
- The first clinical traineeship can be completed from the end of the lecture period of the 4th semester.
- Prerequisite: the certificate of achievement Introduction to Clinical Medicine (EKM) must be passed.
- A total of 4 months (120 calendar days) must be completed.
- A clinical traineeship can only be completed during the lecture-free period
- Dates and deadlines of the HHU can be found here
- Please note that for the Faculty of Medicine, the lecture-free period includes the semester break (period after the 16th week of the semester when no classes or examinations are held), official vacations (e.g. Christmas vacations) and semesters off and/or vacation.
- The clinical traineeship is divided into four clinical traineeship sections:
- 30 days outpatient care
- 30 days inpatient care
- 30 days general practitioner patient care
- 30 days elective clerkship
- The clinical traineeship is possible in an outpatient health care facility under medical supervision or in a suitable general or specialist practice, both in Germany and abroad.
- The clinical traineeship is possible in a hospital, in university clinics or academic teaching hospitals and in an inpatient rehabilitation facility, both in Germany and abroad.
- A clinical traineeship must be completed in the area of general practitioner care in Germany. This includes all general practitioners, pediatricians and internists who do not have a specialty designation.
- The elective clinical traineeship can be completed in an institution that is also suitable for the clinical traineeship sections mentioned above or in another institution in which medical activities are carried out. This also includes public health facilities such as public health officers. It is possible to split the clinical traineeship (see below) and complete it in two different institutions, but these must be in the same field (outpatient, general practitioner, inpatient care or public healthcare).
- It is best to contact the head physician's office of the desired ward of the respective hospital or outpatient care facility (practice) in good time.
- As a rule, a short application with a CV is required.
- Whether and how often an interruption of the clinical traineeship is possible depends on the respective clinical traineeship section.
- If clinical traineeships are interrupted, the individual sections must always last at least 15 calendar days at a time.
Clinical traineeship | Total duration | Interruption |
Outpatient patient care | 30 Days | One interruption possible (15 days + 15 days). |
General practitioner patient care | 30 Days | No interruption possible. |
Inpatient patient care | 30 Days | No interruption possible. |
Elective clinical trial in outpatient, general practitioner, inpatient patient care or another suitable facility, including in the public healthcare system, in which medical activities are carried out | 30 Days | One interruption possible (15 days + 15 days). The elective clinical traineeship can then be completed in two different facilities from one area. |
- Days of absence/interruptions must be added directly to the original end of the clinical traineeship.
- At least 15 days or 30 days must be proven for recognition.
- Example: You are planning a clinical traineeship from August 15 to September 13 (30 days) and are absent for one day on September 8 due to illness. The new period for the clinical traineeship would therefore now be from August 15 to September 14 (30 days + 1 day of absence). The interruption must be indicated separately on the clinical traineeship certificate.
- Application for recognition of the clinical traineeship certificate,
- Certificate of the respective clinical traineeship section issued by the head physician of the respective institution.
- Please use the templates available on this website. The certificate must clearly state the type of clinical traineeship (outpatient patient care, inpatient patient care, general practitioner patient care, elective clinical traineeship).
- Important: A period of clinical traineeship certified beyond the date of issue of the certificate cannot be recognized. Therefore, please ensure that the certificate is not pre-dated.
- We recommend submitting certificates of completed clinical traineeships to the Student and Examination Administration Office for each section so that any queries regarding recognition or missing documents can be made or requested in good time.
- With the exception of the GP traineeship, all traineeship stages can be completed abroad
- The same rules mentioned above apply to clinical traineeships abroad.
- Please note that a full certificate must be issued for a clinical traineeship abroad. For this purpose, certificate forms are also available in English, French and Spanish.
- If these cannot be used, a translation in German certified by a translator sworn in by a court in Germany must be enclosed. English-language documents do not need to be translated. You can find more information about a clinical traineeship abroad here
- Please submit the certificates for the individual clinical traineeship sections with the corresponding application for recognition to the Student and Examination Administration Office.
- All documents should be sent as legible scans in PDF format
- Please only use your HHU e-mail address for sending.
- We are guided by the information on clinical traineeships provided on the LPA website (information sheet).
- Please inform yourself in good time before planning a clinical traineeship.
- If you have any questions, please contact the Student and Examination Administration.