Trillium Health Partners (THP) is a learning organization committed to offering high quality patient-centred care. We play an important role in training and educating a variety of health care professionals such as doctors, nurses and allied health professionals. When you come to THP Trillium Health Partners or our Family Medicine Teaching Units, you may have a student taking part in your care. Students will introduce themselves to you and will always work under the guidance of a licensed, qualified health care professional.
Medical Student is a term used to encompass Medical Students, Postgraduate Medical Students (including Clinical Fellows), and International Medical Students. They participate in clinical activity and are assigned to rotations within the various clinical services. Rotations can range from anywhere between 0.5 day to 12 months depending on the training specialty.
Undergraduate Medical Student refers to an undergraduate learner enrolled in an accredited medical school who is under the direction of a supervising staff physician, Resident or Clinical Fellow when learning in the hospital environment.
Clerk is a senior undergraduate medical student and is also called a Clinical Clerk (CC). At UofT, this refers to years three and four. A Clerk is expected to participate directly in patient care, including physical examinations and medical assessments. Clerks spend the majority of their time on clinical rotations in the Hospital, an FMTU and/or in community placements.
Postgraduate Residency is a stage of postgraduate medical training. A resident is a physician who practices medicine under the supervision of an attending physician. Residents are typically identified by their program year, post MD graduation. (Resident – PGY 1, 2, 3, etc.) Successful completion of a residency program is a requirement to obtaining an unrestricted license to practice medicine.
Clinical Fellow is a medical doctor who wishes to obtain additional training in a specific field over and above his/her residency training. A Fellow’s ability to work independently depends on his/her current CPSO license to practice. A Fellow is also considered to be a Postgraduate Medical Student.
