Career Exploration

Integrated Clinical Experience: Career Advising and Preparation (ICE:CAP)

ICE:CAP is the first part of the CAP longitudinal curriculum, starting in Foundations and extending through Clerkship. The intention of the CAP curriculum is to provide students with an opportunity to: 

• Identify and explore their personal and professional goals and priorities to inform career interests and specialty choices.
• Reflectively examine their personality traits, evolving professional skills and clinical experiences, as they inform career and specialty interests.
• Use their skills of networking, informational interviewing and shadowing to increase knowledge of specialties and develop meaningful mentors.
• Examine the healthcare landscape and needs of our patient population and reflect on professional and social responsibilities when selecting a career. 
• Develop skills in CV writing that will support their research, leadership and residency applications as well as future career applications.
• Explore careers through Enriching Educational Experiences (EEEs), short-term, self-initiated shadowing placements which are logged on MedSIS
• Develop knowledge of careers in medicine 
• Understand how to choose a specialty, and how to prepare for CaRMS
• Participate in informational interviews with physicians to have informal career discussions
• Hear from physicians, upper year students, and industry experts on topics including entrepreneurship, labour markets, best practices for career exploration

Enriching Educational Experiences (EEEs)

Enriching Educational Experiences (EEEs) are a key element of CAP. EEEs are short-term placements occurring during Foundations organized directly between students and physicians they are interested in shadowing.  The purpose of a EEE is to spend time in a clinical setting with a physician observing their practice and learning about their particular specialty.

The number of EEE hours required to complete the course will be determined yearly for the current time based on the opportunities available during the pandemic.

Important information on registering EEE experiences

Students must use the CAP Module in MedSIS to register all activities and access important information, including:

• supervisor & student guidelines 
• a searchable database to identify potential preceptors or areas of interest
• Clinical site requirements

Students may not participate in EEE placements that are not registered in advance on MedSIS.

Our placement sites are an integral piece of the student experiences and as part of this we want to ensure that both our placement sites and students are protected. The University enters into a standard placement agreement with all of the various sites where placements take place (both clinical and non-clinical). As well, The Ministry College and Universities (MCU) has issued Guidelines for Workplace Insurance for College and University Students on Unpaid Work Placements that detail the process for students on work placements who are enrolled in an approved Ontario university program. Placements in clinical settings outside of TAHSN hospitals must be registered a minimum of 3 weeks in advance, in order to ensure negotiation of an agreement. Where an agreement is not in place, shadowing may not occur. 

EEE Guidelines for Supervisors and Students

Please see the Supervisor and Student Guidelines for additional information on shadowing. 

All relevant information pertaining to EEEs and ICE:CAP can be found on MedSIS and on the course pages on Elentra.