Pre-Clerkship Intersession, Clerkship Intersession and Transition to Residency Attendance, Participation and Absence Policy

Purpose

  1. To outline the attendance, participation, and absence policy for the Pre-Clerkship Intersession Course, Clerkship Intersession Course, and Transition to Residency (T2R) courses, which are in alignment with the following Graduation Competencies:
    • IPCS 3. Work effectively with others as a member of a health care team or other professional group
    • LL5: Demonstrate commitment towards professional identity formation.
    • P1: Demonstrate empathy and integrity.
    • P2: Demonstrate responsiveness to patient needs that supersedes self-interest.
    • P5: Demonstrate self-compassion.
    • P7: Demonstrate commitment to uphold ethical principles and medico-legal aspects of the profession.
    • P8: Contribute in teaching others (patients, families, students, trainees, peers, and other health professionals).
  2. Learning sessions in all phases of the curriculum depend on the engagement and participation of peers to maximize the value and effectiveness of teaching sessions for students.
  3. Managing the balance between personal and professional obligations is a key professional skill that is developed as part of the medical training process.  
  4. The School recognizes that students will have scheduled and/or emergent personal obligations that may conflict with required elements of the curriculum.  
  5. Attendance patterns can be an indicator of how students are managing the balance between personal and professional obligations and can help identify students with additional resource needs.  
  6. Communication around attendance and one’s ability to fulfill professional obligations is a required skill for health care providers. Therefore, attendance management is an integral part of delivering medical education curriculum and ensuring the personal wellbeing and professional development of students.  

Audience
All medical students and faculty instructing in these courses  

LCME Standard
8.8 Monitoring Student Time
12.4 Student Access to Health Care Services

Policy

Definitions

  • Absence: Missing a majority or greater of a required curricular activity, after accounting for time allocated to any attendance grace period and student breaks.   
  • Emergent Absence: An absence which occurs due to an illness, or a personal or family emergency.
  • Allotted Personal Day: A day that a student has approval to be absent from curricular activities. 
  • Scheduled Absence: An absence that a student anticipates in advance for a previously scheduled reason.   
  1. Students are expected to arrive on time, fully engage in the Pre-clerkship Intersession Course, the Clerkship Intersession Course, and the T2R course, and act professionally. 
  2. Allotted personal days are to be used for scheduled or emergent absences from the required curriculum.   
  3. Scheduled absences may not be requested on exam days.  Absences on examination days are governed by the Required Courses Exam Policy.   
  4. Allotted personal days do not carry over from course to course. 
  5. Students are allotted the following number of Personal Days for these courses:
    • Pre-clerkship Intersession course (I-RESTORE, 8 wks.): 3 days
    • Clerkship Intersession Course (6 wks.): 2 days
    • T2R (2 wks.): 1 day
  6. Students with scheduled absences must provide prior notice (see Procedure). 
  7. Students with emergent absences must still provide notice (see Procedure) as part of maintaining professional communication.   
  8. Any absence may have make-up work assigned at the discretion of the course director(s) (see Make-Up Work). 
  9. Students who exhaust their allotted personal days and require additional time away from a course will meet with the relevant course directors, faculty, staff, and Office of Medical Education stakeholders to determine whether additional resources or a modified curriculum may be appropriate (see Procedure).  

Procedure

  1. Emergent Absences
    1. Students must notify the appropriate course coordinator and course directors of their absence as soon as possible. Students must complete the Absence Request Form as associated to their curricular phase as soon as they are able. (A link to the Absent Request Form is available on the course syllabus and on the course page in Elentra.)  
  2. Scheduled Absences
    1. Student are expected to request an allotted personal day in advance of the scheduled absence. 
    2. Students must complete the Absence Request Form associated with their curricular phase as soon as an absence is anticipated and at least 7 days in advance of the scheduled absence.
    3. Scheduled absences will be reviewed by the Office of Medical Education for alignment with this policy. Absence requests that meet the advance notice requirements of the policy and can be fulfilled with the student’s available Personal Days will be approved. 
    4. Students with educational responsibilities during a scheduled absence are expected to communicate in advance with the relevant course directors regarding any required make-up work and their peers to ensure that the student’s responsibilities are accounted for in their absence. 
  3. Request for additional Absences
    1. Students who use all their allotted Personal Days within a course and need additional time away from the curriculum must complete the Absence Request Form of the appropriate curricular phase for the additional absences.  
    2. Requests for additional absences will be reviewed by the Attendance Workgroup to determine if the student would benefit from additional resource referrals prior to approval. 
      1.  The Workgroup will be composed of the Curriculum Phase Manager, the Curriculum Phase Director (or other designated Phase Curriculum faculty representative), the Associate Dean for Students (or other designated Student Affairs representative), the Director of the Office of Student Learning and Educational Resources and the Director of Student Wellness.  
      2. The workgroup may seek guidance from stakeholders pertinent to student performance or wellness, including the Phase course directors or Academic coaches, to inform the decision making process.   
    3. Students may be required to meet with the Attendance Workgroup to discuss the need for the additional time away.  
    4. Granting additional personal days may be contingent on referral to resources for student wellness, health, or academic resources to maximize the student’s success in the curriculum.   
    5. Students with a need for significantly more time away (equivalent to 20% of a course as specified in the course syllabus) from the standard curriculum may be required to enroll in a modified curriculum plan.   
    6. A modified curricula will require an educational plan developed jointly with the relevant course directors, longitudinal curriculum faculty, curriculum manager, the Associate Dean for Students, and the Office of Student Learning and Educational Resources for the period of the leave or modified curriculum.   
  4. Tracking of Allotted Personal Days
    1. The number of allotted personal days per course will be specified in the syllabus for each course.
    2. Each calendar day with a scheduled or emergent absence will be considered one allotted personal day. 
    3. The Office of Medical Education will be responsible for centrally tracking and managing allotted personal days and absences.   
  5. Attendance-related communication concerns and other attendance policy violations  
    1. Attendance-related communication concerns and other attendance policy violations include but are not limited to:
      1. An absence from a required session that does not fall under the definition of an emergent or previously approved scheduled absence. 
      2. Signing into a session without attending the session.  
      3. Signing into a session for another student.  
    2. Students with identified attendance-related communication concerns or other attendance policy violations will be referred to their Academic Coach and the Director of Medical Student Professionalism to develop a practice improvement plan.  
    3. Students with a recurring pattern of attendance-related communication concerns or other attendance policy violations will be referred to the Associate Dean for Students and the Director of Medical Student Professionalism.   
    4. Students with continued attendance-related communication concerns or other attendance policy violations despite a referral to the Associate Dean for Students and Director of Medical Student Professionalism will be referred to the Committee on Student Promotions.  

Make-Up Work
Make-up work for any absences may be required by the course to facilitate the achievement of the learning objectives of the missed session and potentially earn the points lost due to the absence.

    Responsibility
    Curriculum Managers and Course Directors for the specified courses

    References
    UC Davis School of Medicine Bylaws and Regulations, Regulation 60: Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Medicine

    Related Policies
    Code of Academic and Social Conduct Policy
    Clerkship Attendance, Participation and Absence Policy  
    Pre-Clerkship Attendance, Participation and Absence Policy  
    Pre-Clerkship Classroom Policy  
    Professionalism Policy 
    Required Courses Exam Policy 

    Policy Owner
    Committee on Educational Policy

    Reviewed By
    Committee on Educational Policy*
    Curriculum Steering Subcommittee
    Course Directors of I-RESTORE, Clerkship Intersession Course, and T2R

    Reviewed Date and Review Cycle
    April 2023; annual review cycle

    *Committee reviews, updates and approves the policy