Tips on Maintaining a Healthy Learning Environment

When Supervising Students

Absences from the Clerkship

In general, students should discuss absences with the clerkship director. If a student has received clearance from the clerkship director for an appointment or event, please do not ask for any additional information, as this is an excused absence. If a student asks you to be excused for a short period of time, for example for a doctor’s appointment, please do not ask the student for details regarding their appointment or ask for any information about a medical or mental health condition. The best approach is to ask the student to discuss any absence with the clerkship director.

Personal Information

We encourage you to try to get to know your students. We recommend asking open ended questions, such as: "I like to get to know the students I work with. Can you tell me a little about yourself/your career interests?" Please don’t ask students specific questions that can be misinterpreted, such as:

Where were you born?
What’s your family’s nationality?
What religion are you?
What is your first language?
Are you married?
Are you in a relationship, or are you single?
Who are you voting for in the upcoming election?

Grades & Career Plans

All students are trying to do well and are nervous about grades in the clinical years, which are no longer based solely on multiple-choice tests. Don’t make comments about their grade even in a joking manner. For example: "Well, you didn’t know the answer to that question, so there goes your Honors." These types of comments cause unnecessary stress on students. Similarly, don’t make jokes about a student’s career plans. For example: "You’re going into X and not our specialty, so you probably don’t need to know this." All students have the same clerkship objectives, so please treat all students the same regardless of career plans.

Personal Errands

Every year, a handful of students report that they were asked to run errands for a faculty member or resident. This is not permitted. In addition, please do not ask students to leave the clinical service to get food or coffee. A better approach is for the entire team to eat a meal/grab coffee together.

General Advice

Please:

Don’t give the students nicknames.
Don’t assume students speak a particular language based on their name.
Do not ask students to serve as interpreters.
Don't make comments about another student or resident’s performance.
Don’t make comments that disparage another specialty.
Don’t make critical comments about work hour restrictions. It is not the student’s fault that duty hours are in place.
Don't ask students about their performance on previous clerkships unless they are asking for career advice.

Rule of Common Sense

Don't ask a student any question that you would not want asked of you or that you would resent if this was a family member.

Although the above was written for students, it is equally applicable for residents, fellows and graduate students.

We realize that teaching takes time. It is also fun and rejuvenating. Students and residents/fellows keep us current and are the future of medicine. Please keep our learning environment safe, healthy and educational at all times.