Transition to Residency

Policies and Procedures for Attendance, Requesting Absences, and Grading

Attendance and Absence Request Policy and Procedures

The Transition to Residency attendance procedure is similar to the procedure for Clinical Intersections. M4 students attend designated synchronous sessions that are scheduled during Phase 3 of the Illinois Medicine Curriculum. Dates for this course are provided to students in advance.

Note that students should not schedule outside activities while they are assigned to attend Transition to Residency, since they may start as early as 7:00 am and may end as late as 6:00 pm. The Transition to Residency dates may vary across campuses.

All segments of Transition to Residency must be completed to satisfy graduation requirements. This includes all scheduled activities such as assignments, workshops, TBLs, and group sessions. This is to ensure that all students are provided with the tools that will help them to build their community of practice, master their clinical skills, foster their own wellness in the clinical setting, and excel in residency.

Requesting Excusal in Transition to Residency and Phases 2/3: Remember that planning ahead for any time off is very important, especially in your clinical training. In Phase 2/3 students follow the Expectation for Participation in Phase 2 and Phase 3 Clinical Experiences to request absences in writing from clerkships, electives, and other courses. Permission for absences is granted by course, clerkship, or elective directors and is consistent with the College-wide policy. Note that you must ask permission in your written requests; you should never assume that a request will automatically be granted.

Absence: Absences for this course and any other experience in Phases 2 and 3 should be requested via the Absence Request Form in advance. Documentation may be required with the exception of absences due to the observance of religious holidays. To request an absence from the Transition to Residency course, you must use the Absence Request Form in advance of the session. Students will be required to make up the days missed during their M4 year.

Late Arrival: Students should always plan to arrive 10 minutes prior to the session start time. If a student knows they are going to be late, use the Absence Request Form in advance or immediately following the session to explain the reason for the late arrival. The course administrator will begin tracking late arrival 10 minutes past the posted start time for the session.

 Leaving Early: Leaving a session prior to its completion without proper notification is considered an unexcused absence. If a student must leave a session due to an emergent issue, or if the situation meets the criteria for excused absence, the student should contact the campus course coordinator or use the Absence Request Form as soon as feasible. The course administration will work with course faculty to deem the absence to be excused or unexcused.

Unexcused absences, unexcused late arrivals, and missed assignments: Unexcused absences, arriving late, and missing assignments are never acceptable in Phase 2/3, nor are they acceptable in Transition to Residency or either of the other portions of Clinical Connections and Competencies (TTC and Clinical Intersections). An unexcused absence, late arrival, and/or missing assignments may elicit a “Professional Development Concerns” form in addition to the student not receiving a passing grade in the course. If a pattern of late behavior or unexcused absences is detected, or if a serious professionalism breach is reported, the student will meet with the Curricular Dean, the Course Director and/or Course Coordinator and the Student Affairs Dean and/or the student’s advisor.

Lab Medicine (TBL) Sessions

LEAVING EARLY: Leaving a session prior to the completion of the application exercise is considered an unexcused absence and will result in a score of 0 (zero) for the IRAT and TRAT regardless of points originally earned. As this is also considered a professionalism issue, the student may be required to meet with the Assistant Dean for Curriculum and/or the Assistant Dean for Student Affairs.

LATE ARRIVAL: Since the ultimate goal of a TBL session is to learn and contribute to the team, students are expected to go to the session even if they are arriving after the posted start time. Late arrivals will be handled as follows:

  • A student who arrives late for the IRAT may still receive any points gained within the remaining minutes allowed for the IRAT, and participate as usual in the TRAT and Application Exercise.
  • A student who completely misses the IRAT and shows up late for the TRAT may still participate in the remaining minutes of the TRAT and receive the full amount of points gained by the group for the The student will receive 0% for the IRAT.
  • A student who arrives after both the IRAT and TRAT portions have ended will participate in the application exercise. The student will receive 0% for the IRAT and 0% for the TRAT regardless of points earned by the team for the The student should contact the Course Coordinator immediately following the session to explain the reason for the late arrival. The Course Coordinator will deem the late arrival to be excused or unexcused after consultation with the Course Director.

Making up missed time: Any missed time, whether excused or unexcused, must be “made-up” before a passing course grade will be submitted, as attendance at all sessions is mandatory. In the case of interactive sessions, this may mean completing missed course segments later in the year, if they are offered again. For Lab Medicine TBL’s, students who are absent (excused or unexcused) will be required to make up the TBL and complete a make-up assignment, as below. In other cases, course work will be remediated with assignments (e.g. written assignment) to be determined at the discretion of the Campus Course Director.

  • TBL Make-Up: PLEASE SEE COURSE COORDINATOR TO SCHEDULE. If the absence is excused, the student will take the Individual Readiness Assurance Test (IRAT) for his/her IRAT score, and receive the TRAT score of his/her team. If the absence is unexcused, the student will have the option to take the IRAT, but will receive a score of 0 (zero) for the IRAT and TRAT.
  • Make-up Assignment: The student will write two multiple-choice questions based on the learning objectives and preparatory material from the session. Below is a list of the required elements for the questions:
    • Clinical vignette. Begin with the presenting problem of a patient, followed by the history (including duration of signs and symptoms), physical findings, results of diagnostic studies, initial treatment, subsequent findings, etc.
    • Four (4) answer All distractors (incorrect options) should be homogeneous. They should fall into the same category as the correct answer (e.g., all diagnoses, tests, treatments, prognoses, etc.). Avoid using “double options” (e.g. do W and X; do Y because of Z) unless the correct answer and all distractors are double options. All distractors should be plausible, grammatically consistent, logically compatible, and of the same (relative) length as the correct answer.
    • Brief explanation for correct and incorrect answers
    • Focuses on important concepts rather than trivial facts
    • Can be answered from studying the preparatory materials and without looking at the options
    • Includes all relevant facts; no additional data should be provided in the options
    • Is not negatively phrased (i.e., avoid using except or not in the lead-in)

Absence due to LOA: Students who are on a Leave of Absence will not be scheduled for Transition to Residency and are not required to attend. These students should communicate with their OSA advisor and the Transition to Residency campus course coordinator to confirm when their attendance will be required.

Chicago Student Absences

In Chicago, the entirety of TTR is scheduled as a 2 week course that repeats 3xs (with approximately 1/3rd of the class participating at a time). While every attempt should be made to avoid scheduling conflicts during TTR course components, it is understood that students may need to request excused absences. To account for this, students will be allowed a maximum of 3 days excused absence during the 2 week TTR course with no more than 2 days of absence in one week. As always, any absences should be communicated to course coordinators via the Absence Request Form with as much advance notice as possible and will require make-up, usually during another round of the course (or as a written assignment when this is not possible), before a passing grade will be submitted to the registrar.

Grading

Student assessment in Transition to Residency is based upon the direct observation of student skills, attitudes, and problem-solving abilities, thus students must be present at all sessions. Grades for the course are either Pass or Fail.

TBLs are graded with the IRAT comprising 60% and TRAT 40% of the TBL grade. The minimum pass level (MPL) for the TBL component of the course is 67%.

To receive a Passing grade in Transition to Residency, students must meet the MPL for TBLs and adhere to the following:

  1. Attend all sessions and sign-in as announced prior to each
  2. Be on time for all
  3. Complete all assignments on
  4. Be professional at all
  5. Participate fully in all
  6. Complete any assigned

Course evaluations will be made available for each session by the end of each Transition to Residency day. Students must complete ALL assigned evaluations.

Failure to meet the above expectations may result in a failing grade for the course. Students will be expected to work with the campus course coordinator and/or course director to make up/remediate any course time, assignments, or professional attributes that were missed or not achieved.

Students with any incomplete course sessions (excused or unexcused) or assignments after the designated time frame, will receive an “NR” (Not Reported) or a grade of “Incomplete”, which will remain until all course requirements are satisfactorily completed. Students have one year (unless otherwise noted by the Course Director) to complete any remaining course requirements otherwise a grade of “Fail” will be assigned and remain on the student’s transcript until the course is completed in its entirety. Only when all requirements have been completely satisfied will a grade of “Pass” be submitted to the registrar.

 

11/25/2024