The Clinical Education component of the curriculum provides opportunity to apply knowledge and skills students have learned in the academic setting. Students are supervised by licensed physiotherapists, who are referred to as clinical instructors during placements. Our clinical instructors help educate the students by sharing their professional and clinical expertise.
Placement offers can be submitted by directly emailing ptcereq@mcmaster.ca. You will receive a confirmation email once we have processed your placement offer. Placement offers for Clinical Practice I - IV can be offered at any time of the year.
In order to provide excellent clinical experiences for our students, we have the following guidelines for physiotherapists that are interested in supervising students for clinical placements:
The Placement Process:
Separate processes are in place for out of catchment, Northern Studies Stream, and international placements.
The Northern Studies Stream (NSS) was established in 1991 to specifically address the shortage of OTs, PTs, and SLPs in Northwestern Ontario through various recruitment and retention initiatives. The Northern Ontario School of Medicine (NOSM) coordinates student placements across northern Ontario for a multitude of health disciplines.
The goals of the current NSS are threefold:
With 25 years of documented success, the current NSS is focused on providing clinical education opportunities for students across northern Ontario. Approximately 50% of students in the PT Program will have the opportunity to participate in clinical education placements in Northern Ontario.
Students who are Northern Ontario residents will be given priority for placements, however, any student, regardless of residency, may apply. Funding for travel and accommodation is available, to a maximum cost paid for by the NSS, through funding made available by the Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care.
Thank you to all of our clinical partners who provide McMaster physiotherapy students with clinical placement learning opportunities.
Please note this is not a comprehensive list of all facilities. The Clinical Education team does their best to update the listing on an ongoing basis.