Clinical Education
It is our mandate to educate Physical Therapy students who are competent to practice as generalists. The clinical education component of the program provides for the integration and application of learning in current academic studies to the clinical environment, leading to the development of clinical competence.
Please access the schedule of the clinical education internships for 2024.
Please enter your offer to host a student for their clinical internship on using this form. Once you have entered the offer, you will receive an email confirmation of your submission. If you need to make any changes to the offer please contact us at ptclined@utoronto.ca
Clinical Education Requirements
You are required to complete 30 weeks of approved full-time clinical education as well as active clinical exposure (ACE) visits throughout the curriculum. You must complete six weeks of clinical experience in each of Units 5, 8, 9, 12, and 14. The number and length of internships have been selected to provide you with an opportunity to develop skills at the various stages of your education, while allowing adequate opportunity for exposure to different areas of physical therapy practice.
Throughout the 30 weeks of clinical education, you are required to obtain 100 hours in the following areas of practice: cardiorespiratory, neurology and musculoskeletal practice. You are also required to complete an internship in each of the following practice settings: acute care, rehabilitation (may include complex continuing care, long-term care) and community-based care. Community-based care includes private practice, community health clinics, industry opportunities, and community service agencies. You must also accumulate the equivalent of one internship of geriatric experience throughout the clinical education curriculum. Unless there are extenuating circumstances, no more than two internships in the curriculum may be in any one practice area/setting.
You are required to keep a record of your internship experiences on the Clinical Experience Record Forms (available on the Clinical Education course shell on Quercus). It is your responsibility to record the caseload variety experienced during internships on the electronic tracking form. This information is used as supporting documentation for accreditation by the department and used by the DCE and/or the ACCE to determine whether clinical requirements have been met and whether future internship requests are appropriate.
Satisfactory completion of all clinical units is required for graduation.
To complete the required clinical internships, it is essential that you submit all required registration documentation.
If your registration materials are delayed, this may delay your internships which can postpone your graduation date and eligibility dates to complete licensing exams. It may also have financial implications, such as additional tuition and fees.