All Non-paid and Pre-licensure Clinical Student Placements at U of T Community Affiliates Paused

March 16, 2020

Dear U of T Affiliated Academic Partners,

Effective Monday, March 16, 2020, all non-paid and pre-licensure clinical student placements at U of T community affiliates will be paused at least until April 4, 2020.

As clinical pressures are increasing, many elective ambulatory visits are being cancelled, and social distancing is being promoted, our TAHSN hospitals have come to this decision, balanced with the need to protect our patients, students, staff and physicians.

Should any students arrive on site tomorrow to begin placements leaders should explain the current situation. For any students already registered we ask they ensure that their personal effects are picked up/removed and that they should complete all urgent handover by end of business day Monday March 16. This pause of placements will be in effect until at least until April 4 and may require further extension as circumstances evolve.

This is aligned with the current provincial shut-down of public schools and we believe this provides a satisfactory window to re-evaluate. We will continue to discuss the ability to bring students back into the clinical environment closer to the week of April and will commit to communicate with you.

We recognize that pausing placements in the clinical environment will impact a large variety of students and also acknowledge that there are significant volumes of students scheduled to begin placements in April. We are aware of this and are committed to continually evaluating the capacity of our environments to effectively support students.

Should you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out: lynn.wilson@utoronto.ca. Thank you for your patience and continued partnership during this extraordinary time.

Lynn Wilson, MD, CCFP, FCFP
Acting Vice-Provost, Heath Care Institutions, University of Toronto