Attendance and Examination Policies
You must be prompt for your clinical shifts and
conferences. All absences MUST be discussed with either the clerkship
coordinator or clerkship director, and arrangements will be made to re-schedule
shifts. Failure to do so may result in disciplinary action and/or reduction in
your final grade. Also, there can be no schedule changes without permission
from your site's clerkship director. We will make every effort to accommodate
reasonable requests, but can only do so with your cooperation.
The final exam is on the last Friday of the rotation. The Clerkship
Administrator will e-mail the time of the exam to you.
Examinations cannot be taken
prior to this time. We realize that this time may create problems for fourth
year students, especially during the interview season. If you cannot be present
for the exam for a VALID reason, please discuss with the clerkship coordinator
or director as soon as possible to make other arrangements within one week of
the original exam date. Any delay beyond this time must be approved at the
discretion of the clerkship director. Failure to do so will result in a zero
grade for the exam, and require a make-up exam. The make-up exam in this case
would be treated as a repeat exam, so subsequent failure of this exam would
result in a recorded failing exam score. This will also affect your overall
clerkship grade adversely. Needless to say, if you have a conflict with the
exam schedule, notify us as soon as possible.
Furthermore, a failing grade on the written examination will also require a
repeat examination. If the subsequent repeat exam is passed, a passing grade
will be recorded, but failure a second time will result in a final failing
grade, requiring remediation, possibly including repeating the clerkship, and
will be referred to the academic status committee.
Honesty and integrity are requisites in medicine. Anyone caught cheating on the
exam will have a zero recorded. No make-up will be offered in this case, and
the incident will be referred to the academic status committee for disciplinary
action.
Grading Policies
The clinical portion will count as
75% of your grade, and will be developed from a composite of your evaluations
from faculty and staff over the four week rotation. The written examination
will make up 25% of your grade. The written exam consists of 100 multiple
choice questions. You are expected to attend the review sessions, grand rounds,
and M&M conferences, and any other department educational functions.
Failure to do so may result in points being deducted from your final score.
Clinical evaluations will encompass the
Feedback
The faculty
understands the importance of early feedback to work on potential weaknesses
and enhance clinical performance. In emergency medicine, you will get some
"instant feedback" on every case that you see and present. The
department will use a daily shift summary as the feedback instrument. About
15-30 minutes before the end of each shift, approach your shift's attending
that you need an evaluation of your shift performance. The shift summary sheet
has space to list the cases you have seen that day, and an abridged version of
the main competencies. You should obtain a shift summary form at the beginning
of your shift, and list the cases you see as you work the shift. Near the end
of your shift, use this list to discuss both relative strengths and weaknesses
demonstrated for that shift, so that you can get daily feedback on performance.
Overall performance regarding the competencies will also be addressed. Finally,
procedures performed that day are to be documented. This method provides
ongoing feedback throughout your rotation, and obviates the need for a
mid-clerkship evaluation. Be persistent in discussing your shift summary, as
this provides the greatest guidance on how you are progressing.
Summative feedback, therefore, will be based upon the totality of shift summaries. The summative feedback form will often reflect the overall collection of shift summaries, but may reflect instances such as improvement or regression of performance over the 4 weeks, accounting for minor variations in the summative form. An attempt will be made to provide specific written comments rating overall performance and any specific areas requiring improvement.