Policy Statement
KSOM departments and central medical school administration ensure that medical students in clinical learning settings involving patient care are appropriately supervised and that the learning environment is safe for both students and patients.
Definitions
- Direct Supervision: The supervising physician is physically present with the student and patient.
- Indirect Supervision with Direct Supervision Immediately Available: The supervising physician is physically within the hospital or other site of patient care and is immediately available to provide direct
- Indirect Supervision with Direct Supervision Available: The supervising physician is not physically present within the hospital or other site of patient care but is immediately available by means of telephonic and/or electronic modalities and is available to provide direct supervision.
Policy Requirement
Students must have an identified faculty supervisor at all times. Students may be directly or indirectly supervised by faculty members and/or residents and, when indirectly supervised, direct supervision must be immediately available at all times by a faculty member or resident.
Process
- Clerkship directors and Medical Student Educators (MSEs) determine and communicate the faculty and resident supervisory assignments on each required clerkship activity and clinical elective course directors provide each medical student with the contact information of their supervisor(s).
- Directors for the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course and Primary Care Track Program determine and communicate the faculty supervisory assignments for each clinical learning assignment and provide each medical student with the contact information of their supervisor(s).
- Faculty or resident supervisors must be immediately available to medical students in person or by cell phone or pager at all
- Clerkship directors and MSEs ensure all resident and faculty supervisors receive the supervision policy and are informed of the expectations of supervision at the start of each rotation.
- Directors for the Introduction to Clinical Medicine course and Primary Care Track Program ensure all faculty supervisors receive the supervision policy and are informed of the expectations of supervision at the start of each academic year.
- The Department of Medical Education ensures all clinical elective course directors receive the supervision policy and are informed of the expectations of supervision at the start of each academic year and that they must distribute the supervision policy to all relevant resident and faculty supervisors.
- Clerkship, course, and elective directors orient students to the expectations of faculty and resident supervisors and how and when to contact supervisors.
- Appropriate supervision is monitored by the Medical Education Curriculum Committee through course evaluations and annual course and clerkship reviews.
Clinical and Procedure Supervision
- Medical students may take patient histories and conduct physical exams as determined by their supervising faculty member or resident.
- Medical students may record notes and enter data in the patient’s medical record as determined by the supervising faculty member or resident and affiliated institution’s
- Medical student orders must be approved by a supervising faculty member or resident prior to implementation.
- Medical students must have direct supervision or indirect supervision with direct supervision immediately available (as determined by the supervisory resident and/or attending and separate from appropriate chaperones) when conducting particularly sensitive elements of the physical exam, e.g., the breast, pelvic, rectal, and genital exams.
- Medical students must have direct supervision when completing any procedure on a patient with the potential exception that indirect supervision with direct supervision immediately available may be determined to be appropriate by the supervising resident and/or attending when the student is performing a minor procedure g., venipuncture or IV placement.
- Medical student supervision must also be consistent with affiliate site policies and procedures.