CE5. Matching Students to Clinical Experiences
The process of matching students with clinical facilities involves the DCE, students, and, in the case of the clinical internship, the clinical facilities.
Each student is expected to perform on-going assessment of their progress in developing the professional behaviors, knowledge, and skills needed for clinical practice. Facilitated by this self-assessment and in consultation with the DCE, Clinical Education Advisor, Academic Advisor, other academic faculty, and/or clinical instructors, students are expected to play an active role in identifying and seeking clinical education experiences that will foster growth in identified developmental areas. DCEs/ACCEs will serve as a resource in the indentification of clinical education sites that will provide a balance of support and challenge to meet the student's needs as a learner, and that assure adequate variety and depth to meet program goals.
Ultimately, the DCEs/Clinical Education Team make all clinical education assignments. Factors will include student self-assessment and input regarding preferences, prior academic and clinical performance, and characteristics of the learning environment at the clinical site.
Students may not decline a clinical assignment; such action will be considered refusal to take a required course.
Students are advised that not all facilities are available for all clinical education experiences. Availability is based on resource constraints of the clinical facilities and on the DCEs’ discretion regarding appropriateness of the facility to specific clinical experiences in the curriculum and/or to a specific student’s learning needs.
There is no guarantee that assignments will be in the facilities or geographic locations requested by students or that students will complete a full-time clinical experience or internship in the metropolitan Boston area.
Matching for Integrated Clinical Experiences: Course faculty/ DCEs complete all matches, taking into consideration the scope of each student’s prior clinical experience.
Matching for Full-time Clinical Experiences: a list of available facilities, including the anticipated number of available placements and anticipated dates of the experience in each facility, is provided during the semester that precedes the clinical experience. Students are responsible for reviewing information about the clinical facilities and identifying preferred sites and self-assessment via the input process outlined by the clinical education team. The course faculty/DCE considers this student input in the match process. Students must submit input by the specified date for the input to be considered in the match process. There is no guarantee that a student will receive an assignment from their listed facilities.
Matching for the Final Clinical Internship
The match process for the final clinical internship begins 5-6 months before the start of the final internship and concludes 2-3 months prior to the start of the internship.
The process for matching students to internship facilities involves the students, the clinical facilities offering internships, and the DCE. Matching for the final internship is a result of a comprehensive interview process and the feedback that results from the interview process, from both students and clinical sites. Each student and clinical site will provide ranked feedback that will be the basis for the final match.
Considering rank information from students and clinical facilities, the match is formed. As with all clinical experiences, students do not have the prerogative to decline a matched internship position.
Students who are not matched with a facility during the first round of the internship match process will work individually with the DCE to determine a course of action. Such students will expand the application and interview process as directed by the DCE, and ultimately will be matched with either a paid, yearlong internship (as available/appropriate) or full-time unpaid clinical experience of sufficient duration to complete PT 843n. Students that do not match in the first round of the internship can expect a prolonged timeline leading to their match.
A more detailed description of the Clinical Internship matching process will be made available to students in advance of this match.
Student Communication with Clinical Sites
Students may contact their assigned clinical education facilities only after being authorized by the DCE to do so. This will occur after the match process for any given clinical experience has been completed and clinical facilities have been notified of the outcome by the DCE. In the case of clinical internship application, students will be authorized to contact clinical facilities with application materials only after application lists have received final approval.
Cancellation of a clinical experience
In the event that a clinical experience is cancelled by a clinical site, the DCE will inform the student of the cancellation in a timely manner. Every effort will be made to determine a timely replacement using similar considerations as the original match.