Vancouver Coastal Health is committed to supporting healthy lives in healthy community with our partners through care, education and research. Partners include students and instructors from educational institutions. We are very proud to host students for their practicum placements and collaborate with educational institutions, faculty, and instructors to ensure students have opportunities to consolidate to their learning. We welcome students energy, perspective and commitment to learning.
If you have any questions please email
placements@vch.ca.
Educational institutions should request placements through the national web enabled data base, Health Sciences Placement Network (HSPnet). This is the preferred method of for placement application so the process is streamlined and sites/programs consider requests from one source. Students who wish to request placements at VCH are required to have a school email address.
Prior to requesting a placement, the educational institution will have to enter into an affiliation agreement with VCH so each party understands their responsibilities and accountabilities in the partnership. Requests for affiliation agreements should be made to
placements@vch.ca Please allow 3-4 months for this process.
Once the agreement is signed, the educational institution may proceed with entering the placement in HSPnet and ensuring the student completes all the necessary training and requirements outlined on this website. Students are to refer to the 
Student Practice Education Core Orientation (SPECO) checklist for the complete list of pre-placement requirements.
We do not receive medical student placement requests directly. All requests must go through the Faculty of Medicine at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Vancouver Coastal Health may be able to accommodate certain observation experiences or Supervised Practice Experiences in some program areas. Observations of patient care areas are intended for qualified health care professionals or students who are seeking professional development opportunities or employment. Regretfully, we are not able to accommodate observations as prerequisites for school programs. Individuals will be required to have immunizations up to date and a current criminal record check. Individuals may be responsible for having adequate insurance and completing the VCH Privacy and Confidentiality Undertaking for Student Placement is mandatory. Please email
placements@vch.ca for details.
Faculty, students and staff preceptors are encouraged to complete an evaluation following their clinical placement. This information is shared with the placement area and helps us to improve the quality of the educational experience for all parties involved. Please take the time to complete your practice experience evaluation: