Undergraduate Rural Electives
DLRI coordinates all rural and regional placements for undergraduate medical learners across Alberta and the Territories.
How To Sign Up For Your Rural Electives
DLRI provides the opportunity for students to experience healthcare delivery in rural and regional communities.
All rotation placements 50km or more outside of metropolitan Calgary and Edmonton in any available specialties throughout Alberta and the Territories are coordinated through the DLRI office.
If you are looking for a visiting elective (outside of AB/NWT), please click here.
We ask that students DO NOT contact preceptors directly. Electives requests must be submitted to SharePoint, and are processed by the elective start date. Learners may receive confirmation of their electives up to eight weeks prior to the start of their rotation, and site availability varies depending on the specialty requested and/or time of the year.
If you book your rotation outside of the process outlined below, DLRI will not reimburse expenses and/or compensate your preceptor.
For more information about requesting a rural elective, please contact rmelect@ucalgary.ca.
Keep the below steps on mind when setting up your rural elective.
Rural Electives Frequently Asked Questions
If you have questions about accessing DLRI SharePoint, please see some frequently asked questions below.
Book an appointment with the Rural Electives Coordinator.
Link: DLRI SharePoint can also be found and on the DLRI website. You will be asked to log onto the UofC Central Authentication system, using your UCID and password.
DLRI arranges electives within Alberta (outside a 50km radius from Calgary), the Northwest Territories, and Whitehorse. As a default, if you do not specify any geographical area, we will look within the AHS Central Zone, South Zone and Calgary Zone (Canmore and Banff).
You will find your request on the DLRI rural elective landing page on the DLRI SharePoint site. The “status” column will show you the current status of your request.
Requests with invalid data are automatically rejected. Please double-check the information you entered to verify that it is accurate. If the problem persists, contact rmelect@ucalgary.ca
We reach out individually to preceptors one at a time. We will reach out to up to three preceptors within the timeline allowed. If we receive a negative answer from all the contacts, we will close the request by changing your request status to “unable to place.”
Unable to place means we have contacted the maximum number of preceptors for your request, and the preceptors were not available to take you for the date requested, OR we have not been able to place you within the time limit to match the time limit to match the AFMC deadline.
No, you can place an additional request for a rural/regional elective for the 1st round of any elective block, and it does not count towards your three home elective requests.
No. The timeline for the second round is too short for our office to secure a placement. Any declined offers will be listed as capacity on the AFMC platform for the second and third rounds for elective blocks.
There is funding up to $500 per elective available to offset the cost of transportation and housing for rural and regional electives. For more information, please contact rmexpenses@ucalgary.ca
All elective cancellations (rural/urban) must go through the UME Elective Director’s office, elective@ucalgary.ca.
Do not contact DLRI or your preceptor to cancel a confirmed elective.
Networking is part of the learning experience. If you know of a specific preceptor that you would like to work with, when you log into the SharePoint site to submit a request, please note this in the comment section (include first and last name).
We will submit the official request on your behalf.
Please do not contact preceptors/clinic directly to arrange your own elective.