Program Award Criteria

The goal of offering career services is to assist students in developing, evaluating, and implementing their individual career, education, and employment plans (CAS Standards and Guidelines, 2012).

The Excellence in Medical Student Career Advising Program Award recognizes the development and/or continued administration of “an effective career advising system...that integrates the efforts of faculty members, clerkship directors, and student affairs staff to assist medical students in choosing elective courses, evaluating career options, and applying to residency programs” (LCME Standard 11.2) with the aim of helping medical students with their career goals.

The Excellence in Medical Student Career Advising Program recognizes that one or multiple individuals may be involved in this effort and that the program is effective within the context in which it is delivered.

Eligibility

1. Programs at AAMC- and AACOM-member medical schools as well as programs at non-U.S. medical schools that maintain a subscription to Careers in Medicine during the entire award cycle.
    
2. Programs at schools with faculty or staff serving as members of the Careers in Medicine Advisory Committee during the award cycle are eligible for consideration for this award, but the Advisory Committee member affiliated with the nominee shall recuse themselves from the review of that program.
    
3. Previous program award recipients are ineligible.
    

Criteria

Evidence of the following qualities and criteria will be used to evaluate nominations:

1. Supports all four phases of the career decision making process (self-understanding, career exploration, decision making, and decision implementation) by
   1. including career advising, counseling, and education;
   2. assisting students in understanding individual interests, values, and skills related to specialty and residency program choice; and
   3. providing information about and resources for specialty exploration experiential education; and support for residency selection, application, and match processes.
       
2. Considers the career needs of the students in the school by
   1. reflecting the developmental and demographic profiles of the student body;
   2. responding to the needs of individuals and the population of medical students; and
   3. recognizing that career decisions are linked to personal, psychosocial, developmental, and cultural aspects of one’s life and supporting the individual in these domains.
       
3. Is integrated into the medical school curriculum, formally or informally, by
   1. intentional design and reflecting the current and relevant landscape;
   2. providing a combination of individual appointments, group programming, career planning courses, and special events; and
   3.  encouraging students to access career services early in medical school.
       
4. Offers accurate, up-to-date resources, information, and training to adequately prepare faculty and staff for their advising or programmatic roles.