David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Student Responsibilities
  REV DATE: 6/15/08

Student Responsibilities

Clinical Responsibilities

In order to develop and refine history and physical examination skills, students are expected to perform frequent history and physical exams.  On inpatient rotations, students should round with their team members and be responsible for patient care (write admission notes, progress notes, and discharge summaries).  Medical students should not be dictating notes for housestaff.  On ambulatory rotations, whenever possible students should have the opportunity to encounter patients first before they are evaluated by housestaff or faculty.  On surgical rotations, students are expected to complete ward responsibilities in addition to observing surgeries in the operating room.  On psychiatry and neurology rotations, students are expected to carry out--in addition to general histories and physicals--detailed psychiatric and neurological examinations.

Call Schedules

Students on Core (required) Clerkships are expected to take call (defined as spending the night at the hospital) as specified for the clerkship. Call should be no more frequent than every fourth night. However, at the same time, it is important to try to maintain continuity with teams on the ward.

For housestaff teams rotating on every third night call, the students may maintain continuity with their team by alternating "short call" (until 10 PM) with overnight call every three days (thus, overnight call would be every 6th night).

Students on Subinternships should plan to rotate with the team on the same schedule as interns and residents.  Call should be equivalent to that of the applicable housestaff and no more frequent than every third night (same policy as for residents).

If a student is assigned to call with his/her team the night preceding Doctoring 3 and Longitudinal Preceptorship day, he/she must be released by 10:00 p.m.  When a student is on-call the night before their Doctoring 3 and Longitudinal Preceptorship day, they may miss morning rounds.

Whenever a student is required to stay overnight, sleeping facilities that provide appropriate privacy must be made available.  Additionally students may decide to stay overnight but not on call rather than leaving late and when tired.  Beds for this use are often available and should be discussed with the student coordinator.

Weekend Duty / Days Off

Students are expected to comply with the weekend schedules of the clerkship, which should be explicitly stated orally and in writing on the first day of the clerkship. Students should have at least one 24-hour period off during a week, averaged over four weeks; the days off may not necessarily be consecutive or on a weekend. The day off is for all clinical clerkships, required and elective.  Days off may include national and official University holidays.  Doctoring 3 days are not counted as days off as they are part of the third year curriculum.  The policy regarding days off conforms to the University of California policy for days off for housestaff.

Absences

It is the student’s responsibility to notify his/her team of any absence and in advance when possible.  For each day that a student is absent from the rotation, the course chair or site director may require the student to make up the time.  If a student misses more than one day per two weeks of a rotation, the student may be asked to repeat the rotation at the site or course director’s discretion.  (For a 6-week rotation, a student may miss up to 3 days before risk of repeating the rotation; for a 12-week rotation, up to 6 days, etc.)  Interviews should not be scheduled during required clerkships.  The student should notify the resident and attending of an unexpected absence and obtain permission from the attending and site director for planned absences.

Schedule Prior to Exams

Students at all sites of a clerkship should have the same amount of time to study for the final exam.  Night call should not be taken within two days before the final exam (e.g., if the exam is on Friday, the last call night should be Tuesday night).  The Course Chair in consultation with the Site Directors will decide on a uniform policy for the clerkship.

Approved/Excused Absences

  • Excused time-off for a day or two is to be discussed with your residents and attending as soon as possible.  Notification to the clerkship site director is advisable.  Please note the policy on absences under Absences and Leaves.
  • You must notify the Student Affairs Office of absences or leaves greater than two days.
  • US Medical Licensing Examinations (USMLE) is an excused absence.  However, you may need to make arrangements with your resident and attending to make up the time missed.  You should request the time off from the appropriate course chair and attending.  Time off should begin by at least midnight before the examination and end by 6:00 p.m. of the second day.
  • Interviews for Internship/Residency are not excused absences.  Course chairs are not obligated to grant time off for internship/residency interviews and may believe significant time off interferes with the care of patients and functions of the team.  You may not schedule interviews during required clerkships (this may result in you having to repeat the rotation.
  • On Match Day and Scholarship Day you are excused from your clerkship responsibilities from 7:00 a.m. until noon.  It is your responsibility to remind your team of your absence.