How To Become A Clinical Externship: What It Is and Career Path

What is a clinical externship and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

4 min read

A clinical externship is part of the learning journey of a medical student at the end of the program. The candidates shadow healthcare professionals at work in their chosen field of interest and gain hands-on experience to support their theoretical knowledge.

Exact duties vary from case to case, but an externship always allows students to interact with patients and assist in doctors carrying out examinations, assessing medical cases and creating diagnoses, coming up with treatment plans, and performing medical procedures on patients.

Although medical externships take place after graduation from med school, this is an unpaid position - if you are lucky enough and manage to find one you do not actually have to pay for yourself. As these positions provide many learning opportunities and prepare candidates for obtaining residency positions, being humble, following orders, and accepting criticism gracefully is an essential part of the job.

ScoreClinical ExternshipUS Average

Salary

2.8

Avg. Salary $35,831

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.3

Growth rate 9%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

4.5

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.62%

Asian 3.12%

Black or African American 7.90%

Hispanic or Latino 7.90%

Unknown 6.24%

White 74.22%

Gender

female 74.20%

male 25.80%

Age - 42

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 42

Stress level

9.3

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.5

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a clinical externship

Explore clinical externship education requirements

Most common clinical externship degrees

Bachelor's

62.6 %

Master's

13.7 %

Associate

10.6 %

Start to develop specific clinical externship skills

Skills	Percentages
Patients	31.89%
Mental Health	7.48%
Patient Care	5.02%
Crisis Intervention	3.79%
Vital Signs	3.68%

Complete relevant clinical externship training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 6-12 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New clinical externships learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a clinical externship based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real clinical externship resumes.

Research clinical externship duties and responsibilities

Set up and manage new medical transcription department.
Manage large scale TMF inventory/file cleanup projects in preparation for FDA and EMA inspections.
Manage difficult or emotional patient situations, with compassion and professionalism.
Participate in multiple studies managing CTM activities for various therapeutic areas simultaneously including oncology, urology, transplant, and immunology.

Prepare your clinical externship resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your clinical externship resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a clinical externship resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable clinical externship resume templates

Build a professional clinical externship resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your clinical externship resume.