Residents

The PLFSOM and its clinical affiliates must perform periodic evaluations of the learning environment in order to identify both positive and negative influences. Maintaining professional standards and developing appropriate strategies to enhance the learning environment are critical aspects of your role as a resident educator. Residents can provide support in this regard by modeling the professional attributes (behaviors and attitudes) that medical students are expected to develop at the PLFSOM.

The PLFSOM Educational Program Goals and Objectives (PGOs) that relate specifically to professionalism, include the following:

5.1 Demonstrate sensitivity, compassion, integrity and respect for all people.

5.2 Demonstrate knowledge of and appropriately apply ethical principles pertaining to patient privacy, autonomy and informed consent.

5.3 Demonstrate accountability to patients and fellow members of the health care team.

5.4 Demonstrate and apply knowledge of ethical principles pertaining to the provision or withholding of care.

5.5 Demonstrate and apply knowledge of ethical principles pertaining to health care related business practices and health care administration, including compliance with relevant laws, policies, regulations and the avoidance of conflicts of interest.

5.6 Demonstrate honesty in all professional and academic interactions.

5.7 Meet professional and academic commitments and obligations.

The PLFSOM has also established specific expectations regarding the professional behavior and attributes in its Standards of Behavior in the Learning Environment, Appropriate Treatment of Medical Student and Declaration of Faculty Professional Responsibility.

The PLFSOM has policies that address violations of our professional code of conduct and support educational activities aimed at preventing inappropriate behavior. Procedures for reporting violations of the code of conduct are shared with all stakeholders in the learning environment. The PLFSOM ensures that any violations will be registered and investigated without fear of retaliation.

Residents must read the PLFSOM’s policies on appropriate treatment of students with their department's clerkship directors annually during clerkship orientations and MISTREAT training. This training presentation is interactive and provides video scenarios to discuss. It includes the MODEL mnemonic to remind residents of the appropriate treatment expectations (M = model professional behavior; O = offer feedback; D = delineate expectations; E = evaluate fairly; L = prioritize learning).

All new GME trainees must also complete a required orientation and training protocol that includes an online module on student mistreatment and associated institutional policies titled "Improving the Academic Learning Environment.”

Residents should familiarize themselves with resources regarding the appropriate treatment of students through the PLFSOM GME webpage. Important links include:

Appropriate Treatment of Medical Students

Standards of Behavior in the Learning Environment

Student-Faculty Dispute Resolution Policy

Code of Professional and Academic Conduct

The PLFSOM provides access to information technology resources sufficient in scope to support its educational mission. The main resource UME residents may need to access is the medical student assessment system for the clerkship phase:

Texas Tech Assessment System (TTAS)

The PLFSOM’s educational program goals and objectives are framed in outcome-based terms that allow the assessment of medical students’ progress in developing the competencies that the profession and the public expect of a physician. The PLFSOM ensures that the learning objectives for each required learning experience (e.g., course, clerkship) are made known to all medical students, as well as faculty, residents and others with teaching and assessment responsibilities in those required experiences.

The PLFSOM's educational program goals and objectives are disseminated to residents through clerkship directors and/or department chairs. The Educational Program Goals and Objectives are also posted on the PLFSOM's academic catalog.

The required clinical encounters and skills specific to each course and clerkship may be found in the corresponding syllabus. All PLFSOM syllabi are published via the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee (CEPC) website.

The PLFSOM curriculum is designed to foster interaction with students in other health professions, including graduate and professional degree programs. These clinical environments also provide opportunities for interaction with physicians in graduate medical education and continuing medical education programs.

Therefore, medical students have the opportunity to evaluate residents teaching (pre-clerkship or clerkship) or supervising in the clinical environment. Teaching evaluations are collected and reviewed by the Office of Assessment and Evaluation. Any evaluations indicating a potential problem are immediately referred to the relevant assistant dean for medical education and the associate dean for student affairs. Residents should receive at least one report per year aggregating teaching evaluations for the year, which are distributed to the resident, the resident’s program director, the relevant course director(s), and the assistant deans for medical education.

The PLFSOM is responsible for developing and implementing work-hour policies for medical students, especially those on clinical clerkship rotations, in accordance with the Liaison Committee on Medical Education’s Element 8. These policies promote student health and education. The policy regarding the amount of time medical students spend in clinical and educational activities during clerkships may be found in the Common Clerkship Policies under “Duty Hours.”

The PLFSOM must ensure that individuals supervising or teaching medical students are familiar with the learning objectives of the course/clerkship and are prepared for their roles in teaching/assessment. The links below provide resources to enhance residents' participation in the learning environment.

Each clinical department with required clerkships has developed a custom resident preparation plan. Each plan has been reviewed and approved by the Curriculum and Educational Policy Committee as an adoption of formal process used by GME program directors, clerkship directors and department chairs to prepare residents for teaching.

Preparation of GME Trainees for Participation in UME

• Surgery Department Resident and Fellow Preparation Plan
• OB-GYN Department Resident Preparation Plan
• Psychiatry Department Resident Preparation Plan
• Internal Medicine Department Resident Preparation Plan
• Pediatrics Department Resident Preparation Plan
• Family Medicine Department Resident Preparation Plan
• Neurology Department Resident Preparation Plan
• Emergency Medicine Department Resident Preparation

Each individual clerkship director is responsible for ensuring that all residents who supervise and/or assess medical students receive the objectives, syllabus and any necessary orientation materials. The follow policies provide additional details regarding UME assessment requirements:

• Narrative Assessment
• Formative Feedback Policy

Medical students in clinical learning situations involving patient care must be supervised at all times. This ensures not only patient and student safety, but that the level of responsibility delegated to the student is appropriate to his or her level of training, and that the activities supervised are within the scope of practice of the supervising health professional. Please see the following policies for more details:

• Clinical Supervision of Medical Students
• Educational Program Participation by Non-Faculty
• PLFSOM Declaration of Faculty Professional Responsibility
• Appropriate Treatment of Medical Students

The PLFSOM must provide medical students with timely access to needed diagnostic, preventive, and therapeutic health services. The school has policies and procedures in place that permit students to be excused to seek needed care. Residents should familiarize themselves with the policies related to medical student attendance found in the Common Clerkship Policies.

If a medical student chooses to see a health care provider who could later assess them for a grade, the student should notify the clerkship coordinator of the relationship so that the faculty member may recuse him or herself from evaluating the student. This policy ensures that medical students’ health records are maintained in accordance with legal requirements for security, privacy, confidentiality and accessibility.