Universitätsklinik für
Allgemeine, Viszeral- und Transplantationschirurgie
(AVT)

Dear Students,

thank you for your interest in a clinical elective at the department of General Surgery and Transplantation at the Hospital of the University of Tuebingen. Our team covers the whole spectrum of acute care surgery as well as laparoscopic and  robotic surgical oncology and the transplantation of all abdominal organs. 

As a student you will have the chance to get to know the wide spectrum of General Surgery. Please be advised that both thoracic and orthopedic (trauma) surgery are conducted by different departments.

Schedules:

We only accept students for a minimum of 4 weeks and up to 12 weeks since there will be some orientation period while getting to know the system and workflow.

The students are expected to be on service Monday to Friday from 7:15 am to 4:09 pm. On Fridays 2 pm is the end of service. You will not be required to work on-calls or weekends.

If your university requires an exam or a formal grading please let us know well in advance.

Housing & fees:

During your stay you will receive a student ID to get a discounted fair at the hospital cafeteria.

Unfortunately we cannot provide you with any sort of housing. However since Tuebingen is a city with at least 30.000 university students (out of 90.000 inhabitants) there is usually plenty of available and affordable housing.

There are no fees for the application or the clinical elective itself.

Visa:

Please make sure you are eligible for a German Visa before applying. If you need any letters of acceptance we will happily provide them. However if you need to have the documents sent to you via a transport service we cannot cover any fees for that.

Application:

The department covers three surgery wards as well as a surgical ICU. Your primary responsibility will be the assist the doctors with the care of inpatient population as well as scrubbing into surgical procedures for assistance. We do not offer any observerships. 

Please be advised that we can only offer a limited amount of electives to visiting students since we want to keep a high level of patient / surgeon student interactions. International medical students are expected to stay for at least 4 weeks in order to get used to the German workplace environment. Also please be advised that teaching language is German and you will be required to be able to communicate (but not write) in German.

If you are attending a medical school within the European Union you may apply for an elective within your 4^th and following years, however we expect you have had theoretical lectures in surgery. 

All other students must be in their final year of medical school during their stay in Tuebingen.

We recommend applying 6 to 12 months prior to the period of stay. Given the medical schools structure and need to practically train students during summer and winter breaks we see less busy teaching periods from May to June and from November to January, which may increase your chance to be offered an elective. 

We will need the following documents on application, which may be not older than 3 months:

• Letter of motivation
• Current CV (photo at your discretion)
• Certificate of enrolment in your medical school (with of official German translation if not in English or German) 
• Proof of German language speaking, reading and hearing capabilities of B2
• Proof of immunization to the following pathogens (Measles, Mumps, Rubella, Varicella, Tetanus, Diphteria, Pertussis, Poliomyelitis) as well as a negative HCV Antibody and Quantiferon Test to rule out Tuberculosis 
• Proof of Anti-Hbs-Antibody-Titer > 1:100 

Please send your request directly to Christine Petermann via Email (see Contact)

Do not send any documents to anyone else (neither the head of department nor his office) since this will cause a delay in the workup.