UI College of Medicine Clinical Supervision of Medical Students
Overview Heading link
At UI College of Medicine, we hold patient safety in the highest importance. We value the role of medical students as members of a health care team in providing excellent clinical care. We embrace the educational principle of graduated responsibility to maximally support learners in their development of clinical expertise. This policy describes the requirements of appropriate clinical supervision to ensure both patient safety and student education in the clinical setting.
- Relevant Accreditation Standards
- LCME Accreditation Standard:
- 9.2 Faculty Appointments
- 9.3 Clinical Supervision of Medical Students
Statement Heading link
At UI College of Medicine, medical students in clinical learning situations involving patient care must be appropriately supervised at all times in order to ensure patient and student safety. The level of responsibility delegated to the student must be appropriate to the student’s level of training, and the activities supervised must within the scope of practice of the supervising health professional.
Medical students must never provide unsupervised care. They must be supervised in their clinical roles at all times by a licensed clinical provider with a faculty appointment at the University of Illinois College of Medicine. Residents, fellows, and advance practice providers without a UI COM faculty appointment may only supervise medical students when they, themselves, are under the supervision of a licensed clinical provider with a faculty appointment at UI COM and when this supervisor has delegated medical student supervision to them.
Supervision type may be direct or indirect. Except as may be specified in this policy, the type of supervision depends upon the student’s level of training, prior experience, risk to the patient, and the judgment of the supervisor. Whether directly or indirectly supervising, the supervisor is expected to review and independently verify the student findings, assessments, and care plans that are used in the care of the patient and to document this review.
Definitions Heading link
For purposes of this Policy, the following definitions shall apply:
Licensed Clinical Provider: Physicians, residents, medical fellows, and other licensed health professionals who are allowed to supervise a relevant activity consistent with the scope of their license (e.g., Advanced Practice Professions like Physician Assistants and Nurse Practitioners).
Direct supervision: The supervisor is physically present with the medical student and patient as care is being provided.
Indirect supervision: The supervisor is not physically present with the medical student and patient but is immediately available to provide guidance and direct supervision as needed.
Medical Procedures: Any diagnostic or therapeutic activity that is physically invasive to the patient and performed in an operating room, procedure suite, or at the bedside, requiring a procedure note and informed consent of the patient.
Communication between parties Heading link
Course/clerkship directors (and their designees) are responsible for assigning students to designated faculty and resident supervisors at clinical sites for all patient care experiences. Course/clerkship directors (and their designees) are responsible for ensuring faculty, residents, and students are notified of these assignments as well as expectations for student participation in patient care and the supervisor’s responsibilities. For pre-clerkship hospital visits, the licensed clinical provider caring for the patient (or their designee) will be the clinical supervisor and must be notified prior to student interaction with the patient.
Students on duty must have rapid and reliable systems for communicating with faculty, their supervisor(s), and resident physicians.
The director of the clerkship or course is responsible for communicating standard procedures through which students can report concerns regarding a lack of adequate and appropriate supervision that may violate this policy. Procedures may include but are not limited to reporting of learning environment/professionalism concerns to the Senior Director of the Student Learning Environment and direct reporting to a clerkship or course director.
For all patient care contacts, the patient shall be made aware when the individual providing the care and/or performing the procedure is a student.
Students are expected to recognize when they need additional consultation and supervision in the clinical setting and seek it accordingly.
Procedural supervision Heading link
All medical students must be under direct supervision for all medical procedures. This supervision must come from a provider for whom that procedure is within the scope of practice.
- Medical students are expected to request and assume developmentally appropriate, graduated levels of involvement/participation in procedures during their training.
- The supervisor is ultimately responsible for determining the extent to which a student is competent to participate in the procedure.
- For each clerkship or clinical rotation, faculty leadership define the medical procedures in which medical students are permitted and/or required to participate, the prerequisite skills for participation, the appropriate clinical settings, and the expected levels of medical student participation and responsibility.
CCIA approved 11/6/2024