Attendance Requirements

In year 2 secondary care placements, students will attend clinical placement full-time for 42 weeks (excluding holidays), with approximately every third Monday back in the university for small group discussion and revision sessions designed to complement clinical placements.

Students will attend each core specialty as follows:

• AMU: 9 weeks

• GP: 9 weeks

• ED: 6 weeks

• COTE, Mental Health, OBGYN, Paeds, Surgery and elective: 3 weeks

Students are expected to attend their placement five days per week, with the exception of university holidays, Bank Holidays, study days and exams. As per the PAPER B attendance requirements, students are expected to attend 100% of the time. However, where students may have absences due to ill health or other circumstances, they must achieve above 90% attendance in total on these placement days to pass PAPER B. 

Guidance on attendance:

1. As stated above, students should attend placement 5 days per week. However, some exceptions may apply, for example, students may be required to work a varied rota, including nights and/or weekends. If students are working directly with a supervisor, they may be expected to follow their shift pattern. This is reasonable, as long as the student is working sensible hours and evenly distributing these hours across the week.

2. Students must agree daily start and finish times with their supervisor at the beginning of the placement. This will help to establish a regular pattern of attendance and ensure learning opportunities are maximised. Students must ensure they have appropriate supervision in place if they are attending outside of core working hours. This should be discussed with the nominated supervisor. We would generally expect students to attend for a minimum of 7 hours per day (excluding breaks).

3. Students should evidence their attendance clearly on their Attendance Log and add notes to clarify or explain absences.

Absences

If a student is unwell and cannot attend their placement, they are required to email their supervisor (including other relevant members of the clinical team) and PA_CP@sgul.ac.uk by 9am on the day affected.

Absences will be monitored on a termly basis and any student who has consistent periods of absence will be required to meet with the placements team, as a supportive measure. If you have any concerns regarding a student absence/s, please do contact us as a priority.

Missed days may be remediated (such as attendance at weekends if feasible and/or agreed by the designated supervisor), however if the period of absence is significant, the student should discuss what is achievable with their Clinical Supervisor and the placements team. The result of this will be reflected in the Clinical Placement Assessment completed at the end of the placement by the Clinical Supervisor.

If a student has experienced considerable absences and has not adequately demonstrated their clinical competency, they may fail the placement. This will be left to the discretion of their Clinical Supervisor. If the supervisor feels the student has not met the minimum competencies outlined in the Clinical Placement Assessment due to absence, they will be expected to repeat the placement in full, during the elective block at the end of the academic year. This means that there is only one opportunity for students to mitigate and repeat a failed placement.