SGU maintains formal affiliation agreements with affiliated hospitals and/or clinical centers where clinical training occurs for its third- and fourth-year medical students.
Clinical centers and hospitals accept qualified students into organized, patient-based teaching programs and provide additional instruction through lectures, conferences, ward rounds, and seminars.
Designated hospital staff supervise the educational experience and assess each student’s progress toward achieving MD program objectives during clinical rotations. Within the bounds of their teaching programs, affiliated hospitals adhere to the precepts and standards of the SGUSOM teaching curriculum as outlined in this Manual.
Based on appropriate qualifications and recommendations of the hospital, SGUSOM appoints a director of medical education (DME) who is the hospital administrator responsible for SGU clinical training and is the liaison with the School of Medicine. DMEs receive formal appointments to the School of Medicine’s faculty that are commensurate with their qualifications and duties. Their principal role is to supervise clinical training and ensure its quality and conformity with the University’s guidelines described in this Manual and the School of Medicine Faculty Handbook. The DME is responsible for appointing a clerkship director (CD) for each core rotation and to ensure that:
- Faculty teaching SGU students are of high quality
- Faculty teaching SGU students at each hospital are evaluated appropriately
- Feedback to faculty is timely
The CDs, the hospital’s medical staff, and postgraduate trainees play active roles in teaching SGUSOM students; many also hold clinical faculty appointments at SGUSOM. The CD and clinical teachers lead orientations, lectures and conferences. They conduct bed-side rounds, teach clinical skills, conduct mid-core formative assessments, maintain students’ records, and help determine students’ final grades.
To promote consistency in clinical training across sites and support University-wide integration, SGU’s clinical faculty participate in the School of Medicine’s ongoing educational activities, administrative meetings, and clinical department meetings.
The University retains sole and final authority to evaluate each student’s overall academic performance and to make all determinations regarding promotion, retention, remediation, and graduation, including the granting of the Doctor of Medicine (MD) degree.
All hospitals are selected to ensure their facilities meet SGU’s standards. They must demonstrate a continuing commitment to medical education and provide the infrastructure to support high-quality clinical training, including integrating medical students into the health care team, providing access to hospital computer systems, and supervising student involvement with patients.