Externships are experiential learning opportunities, similar to internships, generally offered by career college types of educational institutions to give students short practical experiences in their field of study, as none of their units are accepted in the conventional community college or university world. In medicine it may refer to a visiting physician who is not part of the regular staff. It is derived from Latin externus and from English -ship.The term externship has a first known use date of 1945 in the Merriam-Webster dictionary.Externships are generally shorter than internships and last for approximately a few weeks to months.