Orthopaedic Surgery
Sub-I Rotation

Orthopaedic Surgery Clerkship

ORTHO 318A: Sub-Internship in Orthopaedics

Open to visitors. Students will rotate two weeks at Stanford University and two weeks at either Palo Alto Veterans Administration (PAVA) in Palo Alto, CA or Santa Clara Valley Medical Center (SCVMC) in San Jose, CA. An in-patient and outpatient experience, intended for medical students in their final year who have completed a basic Orthopedics clerkship. Students build upon skills learned in the basic clerkship with increased responsibility; students perform primary workup of new patients, perform procedures such as: seeing patients and taking a basic orthopedic history, perform physical examination of the musculoskeletal system, improve their ability to manage complex patient presentations including diagnosing and treating common adult and pediatric orthopedic problems. Students are assigned to Arthritis/Joints, Foot/Ankle, Hand, Peds, Shoulder/Elbow, Spine, Sports, Trauma or Tumor service, attend daily rounds and clinics, and go to the operating room. Effort is made to accommodate student requests to be on a particular service. Students participate in daily care, take night call, and writes notes. The main O.R. and some conferences are located at the Stanford Hospital. Students will attend Wednesday morning grand rounds and lectures each week, and will also have one hour of lecture per week dedicated to medical students. Students will attend any resident surgical skills labs scheduled during their rotation. During the rotation, students will meet with the Chairman and Residency Program Director, and will be interviewed for the Stanford Orthopaedic Residency program. Visiting students wishing to do this sub-I must receive prior approval before submitting their application to the School of Medicine. Please email to sgokey@stanford.edu your USMLE, school transcripts and CV and indicate the specific period for which you would like to be considered. Prereq: Successful completion of Ortho 306A and for visiting students, successful completion of your schools equivalent of an introductory orthopaedic course.

Requirements: 

Step 1: 

Pre-approval. Approval of visiting students to apply for our Sub-I (Ortho318A) course is done on a departmental level. This acceptance to apply does not guarantee a spot. For pre-approval, the following should be sent to our Rotation Coordinator, Sue Gokey Gonzalez at sgokey@stanford.edu

  1. copy of their transcript
  2. USMLE report and current CV
  3. indicate the period they are interested in rotating (please reference below for the period dates)

Step 2:

If you are approved, you will receive an email from Sue stating your approval for application. Once they’ve received approval, you can go to the OMSA visiting student website (http://med.stanford.edu/clerkships.html) and complete their application as set forth by their office. The application acceptance period for the Summer quarter (Periods 1, 2 and 3) is the month of April and Autumn quarter (periods 4, 5 and 6) application acceptance period is month of July.

Rotation dates vary each year. Please see schedule before for dates for this academic year.

Sub-I’s rotate 2 weeks on a Stanford service and 2 weeks a either the VA or Valley. Requests are taken into consideration but not guaranteed. Services: Arthritis/Joints, Foot/Ankle, Hand, Pediatrics, Shoulder/Elbow, Spine, Sports, Trauma or Tumor.

If you have questions, please contact Sue Gokey Gonzalez at: sgokey@stanford.edu or 650-721-7616