Externships are experiential learning opportunities, similar to internships, provided by partnerships between educational institutions and employers to give students practical experiences in their field of study. In medicine, it may refer to a visiting physician who is not part of the regular staff. In law, it usually refers to rigorous legal work opportunities undertaken by law students for law school credit, similar to that of a junior attorney. 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.