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Y: Your Answers to Student Questions

Your Answers to Student Questions (FAQs)

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Can you look at my note?

Students rotating on the inpatient service are required to hand in two admission history and physicals and one daily progress note. These should not just be cut and paste versions of the electronic medical record. The write-ups should clearly describe the patient and reflect the student's thought process regarding the patient's assessment, differential diagnosis and plan. Faculty are asked to grade these H&Ps using a standard rubric. The students have been given a copy of this rubric. Residents can assist students by providing feedback prior to the student's submission of their write-up.

Review your expectations for reporting on patient status and documentation in the medical records. Students are expected to write daily notes on their inpatients. Residents and faculty should read these and provide the student with feedback. The requirements to provide teaching attestations do not apply to student notes. Student notes do not suffice for patient records and another note must be provided by the resident (with teaching attestation by the attending) or a full note should be provided by the attending. The requirement to hand in a progress note gives the student the opportunity to receive additional formative feedback about one of their notes.

What do I do with these feedback cards?

Students may ask you about the blue feedback cards that they have been given. They may hand you a feedback card after they have seen a patient and been precepted by a faculty member. They may also hand a blue card to a resident who has observed them taking a history or physical. The cards have check boxes for knowledge, skills and behaviors and an area for the faculty member or resident to write in comments. Students are provided with these cards to use as a trigger to remind faculty to give them feedback and as a mechanism for the clerkship to receive comments about the students. If a student hands you a card, you should try to make the time, even if only for a few minutes, to discuss their self-assessment of their patient encounter, your observations of their patient care skills, knowledge and critical thinking skills, and to write a few sentences on the back of the card. The student can then submit the card to the clerkship coordinator or you may return it to the coordinator or a designated box. Check with the clerkship or site director for more information.

Whom do I call when I am going to be absent or late?

Occasionally students become ill during the clerkship or have important life events or needs that require attention. Students have been advised to contact their assigned sites if they are unavoidably late or will be absent for all or part of a day. In all cases, they should also inform the clerkship coordinator so that we can track the absences. If a student asks for a day off, please advise the student to contact the clerkship coordinator. If a student requires more than one day of absence during the pediatric clerkship, the student will receive an incomplete for the clerkship. Office practices should provide students with names and phone numbers of appropriate staff to call in case of emergency or absence. See Upstate Absence Policy.

Should I wear a white coat?

Students are expected to wear their white coats at all pediatric sites. This helps patients, staff, nurses, residents and physicians to identify them in their role as student.

Is attendance required at all conferences?

Students have a schedule of required conferences and the clerkship coordinator has these available for all sites. Students have specific required conferences.

I have finished my work. Can I go home now?

You should inform students of the times/days of activities, such as work rounds, morning report, teaching rounds, radiology rounds and other activities.

Students assigned to inpatient or outpatient sites are expected to be available during the assigned hours. For example, outpatient clinical sites may elect to send students home after 5pm, even if the site still has patients scheduled. Students assigned to the Urgent Care at Community General should not stay past midnight. Students scheduled for evenings on call may be sent home early by the residents if it is reasonably assured that the student will not miss any potential learning experiences (for example, new admissions).

What should I write my professionalism/systems based practice narrative about?

Students are required to write a short narrative that is due during the 4th week of the clerkship. The purpose of the narrative is to give the student an opportunity to reflect about something that they observed in the clinical setting regarding professionalism or systems based practice. They can write about a positive observation (for example, exemplary professionalism) or a negative experience (observation of an unprofessional behavior). They may choose to identify and write about a system issue, such as patient safety, cost or other quality issue.  These narratives are de-identified and read by the clerkship director. In Syracuse, the Chair of the Pediatric Department reviews the narratives. A few are chosen for discussion during the last week of the clerkship.

Can you observe my history and physical examination?

Students need to complete 2 Mini-CEX forms for each 5-week rotation. It is recommended that one history and physical examination be observed while on the inpatient clinical experience and one be observed while on the outpatient experience. It may not be possible to observe the entire history and physical. The form allows for comments on the parts that you do observe. That is, you can observe a partial history or partial physical, check the relevant boxes on the form and give the student direct feedback after their encounter. There is a space for feedback and overall comments as well. Observation of the students is a key component of their learning and is greatly appreciated by the students.

What is the deadline for logging my clinical encounters?

Students are advised to log clinical encounters as they occur. The logged encounters are reviewed mid-clerkship with the clerkship or site director. Students must log at least 25% of required encounters by mid-clerkship and all (100% of) encounters by the last day of the clerkship. Students have specific categories of diseases and conditions that they must see by the end of the clerkship. If a student asks you for help with finding a patient with a certain diagnosis, that means that they are "short" on their required list of encounters and need help finding patients. If a student does not have access to all of the required diagnoses, they have access to online cases (http://www.med-u.org/clipp) that can be used to substitute for "real" cases.

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