Advising and CiM

What is a Careers in Medicine liaison?

The CiM program is coordinated through a liaison, usually the associate or assistant dean of student affairs in the school of medicine. The school liaison is the primary point of contact for the CiM staff. All materials and any updates to the program will be provided to the school liaison.

Depending on how the program is structured, liaisons are responsible for the following:

• Creating an implementation plan for the program throughout the four years
• Selecting and preparing faculty advisors for their roles
• Providing students with CiM Web site access and written materials
• Marketing the program to students
• Coordinating workshops and programming efforts

There is no formula for a successful career planning program, and implementation depends a great deal on the resources and time available to the liaison. There is a CiM Liaison List available to find out who serves as the liaison for your institution.

What is a Careers in Medicine advisor?

An advisor is any faculty or staff member charged with the general career advising duties for medical students. They may be staff from student or academic affairs, admissions, financial aid, minority affairs, basic or clinical science, or they may be alumni, preceptors, or even students (M3 or M4) who are trained as peer advisors. Having a good mix of faculty and staff can be very useful in providing students a broad range of perspectives on medical school and specialty selection.

How are advisors used in the program?

Throughout the Student Manual and the Web site, there are comments to medical students that encourage them to consult their advisor before beginning certain activities and to review their progress. These are the key areas where advisors play a role.

Do we have to have advisors to conduct CiM?

CiM has been designed as a "stand-alone" program, and medical students could proceed through much of this program without advising assistance. However, this is probably not the most effective use of the program. The advisor's role is critical to the career success of physicians-in-training.

How many advisors do we need?

Many schools find that a ratio of one advisor to every five or ten students is ideal, but this may not be possible at some schools. The number of advisors required to meet student need will depend on how you structure your program and the responsibilities assigned to the advisors. Their responsibility will be in providing individual or small group meetings with students to check on their progress, address and explore career decision-making topics, and answer questions. If your ratio of advisors to students is high, you may find that regular small group sessions between advisors and students will be more effective than individual sessions.

Contact Us    © 1995-2008 AAMC    Terms and Conditions    Privacy Statement