Additional Externship Policy

Students wishing to participate in service-learning externship experiences that fall outside of the required Year 4 service-learning experience should adhere to the following protocols to obtain permission from the School of Dentistry. The School of Dentistry wants to support students in these endeavors, when there is no conflict with other academic or clinical responsibilities, and when students make the necessary advance arrangements and secure appropriate authorization in advance. These arrangements and authorizations require coordination with several different entities within the School of Dentistry and are the responsibility of the student seeking the opportunity. The student should:

Submit a written request to Dr. Patricia Meehan, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs. This request should include the dates that the student is proposing for the experience, the site, and the specific activities that the student wishes to undertake. If the student will be missing any regularly scheduled academic assignments or clinical activities, those should be delineated, and the strategies for addressing those responsibilities should be outlined. If clinical activities will be affected, the student will need the approval of their GP director and Dr. DePaola, Associate Dean for Clinical Affairs. Drs. Meehan and Depaola will make the decision regarding whether the student’s absence can be approved.
The student should consult with Dr. Scott Swank, externship program coordinator, to determine whether the School of Dentistry has a current affiliation agreement with the proposed site. Affiliation agreements are required in order for the School of Dentistry’s liability insurance carrier to cover the student’s activities at the site.
If there is no current affiliation agreement with the site, and the student wishes to participate in clinical activities at the site, the student may request that an institutional affiliation agreement be established. This request must first be submitted in writing to Dr. Richard Manski, Professor and Chair, Dental Public Health, and director of the service learning programs. Institutional affiliation agreements general take two to three months to complete. Additional externship requests cannot be approved without an affiliation agreement in place.
The extramural site documents requiring signature by the School of Dentistry will be signed by Dr. Manski and Dr. DePaola.
This protocol does not apply to Post Graduate Residency Program Site Visits. See applicable protocol “Requests for Post Graduate Program Site Visits.”

Updated: June 2014

Reviewed: August 1, 2016

Updated: August 1. 2021