Purpose:
Clinical exposure time during a clinical rotation must balance students’ educational needs acquired through direct patient care, healthcare team activities, and structured learning activities, against the negative effects of fatigue and sleep deprivation which impact student wellness, patient safety, and academic performance.
Scope:
All clinical faculty and students should be aware of the SGU Policy on Clinical Exposure Time.
Overview:
The clinical exposure time for SGU students should average 50 hours per week on core rotations, of which 30% is protected academic time for educational discussions, case conferences, didactic teaching, and self-study. Protected academic time includes time off for NBME and Mid-Core Exam preparation and participation. Clinical exposure time may vary from week to week but should comprise an average of 50 hours per week per core rotation.
Principles:
- Students on clinical rotations are expected to participate in learning activities at the clinical site throughout the workday- Monday through Friday.
- Students may also be assigned to evening, weekend, and holiday hours; all hours are considered as clinical exposure time.
- Although schedules may vary somewhat by hospital and core rotation, clinical exposure time should not exceed 50 hours per week when averaged over the entire rotation. This means some weeks may exceed 50 hours and other weeks may be less than 50 hours. For example, in a 6-week rotation, there may be 3 consecutive weeks of approximately 60 hours/week and the remaining 3 weeks of the rotation may be approximately 40 hours each week. In this case, the average clinical exposure time over the 6-week rotation is 50 hours per week.
- An average of 30% of the clinical exposure time must be protected academic time consisting of educational discussions, case conferences, didactic teaching, and self-study. Protected academic time includes time off for NBME and Mid-Core Exam preparation and participation. During protected academic time students should have no patient care or health-care team responsibility.
- While all clerkship directors must comply with this policy, they do have the option of allowing additional time off for study.
- Students who are allocated clinical exposure time that exceeds the provisions of this policy, should report this in their end-of-clerkship evaluation form and notify their respective Clerkship Director and/or the Senior Associate Dean of Clinical Studies or their delegate.