Attendance

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. 32/40 weeks is spent in secondary care.

Students will attend each core specialty as follows:

• AMU: 9 weeks
• ED: 6 weeks
• COTE, Mental Health, OBGYN, Paeds, Surgery and elective: 3 weeks

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.

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).

Students should evidence their attendance clearly on their Attendance Log and add notes to clarify or explain 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. Please contact the university if the student has reported an absence directly to you, without notifying PA_CP@sgul.ac.uk, as this is considered a professionalism issue.

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.

In Year 1, students are expected to attend the practice on alternate Wednesdays during term time between mid-October and early July. A schedule of when students should attend will be circulated with your allocation email. Students are expected to attend for a minimum of 7 hours (excluding breaks) on their allocated Wednesday and should not attend at any other time, unless by mutual agreement between student, supervisor and university staff. As per the PAPER A module, students are required to maintain attendance on placement of 90% and above. If any student falls below this threshold, they should contact the practice to arrange remedial days to compensate for absences.

In Year 2, 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. They will return to their GP placement for a period of 9 weeks and attend full-time, Monday to Friday.

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.

In order to meet the required outcomes of the programme, we recommend that students aim to complete a minimum of 35 hours per week or 30 hours if the week is impacted by a university study day, exam or Bank Holiday, with attendance Monday - Friday. How these hours are structured daily can be established between supervisor and GP Supervisor. 

Students cannot compress hours and should expect to attend 5 days per week. 

Attendance should be evidenced via completion of an Attendance Log. It is the student’s responsibility to seek supervisor sign-off. If the supervisor is unavailable, sign-off can be delegated to another GP who can verify attendance. 

If a student is unwell and cannot attend their placement, they are required to email their supervisor (including other relevant members of the practice team) and PA_CP@sgul.ac.uk by 9am on the day affected. Please contact the university if the student has reported an absence directly to you, without notifying PA_CP@sgul.ac.uk, as this is considered a professionalism issue.

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 or during holidays), however if the period of absence is significant, the student should discuss what is achievable with their GP supervisor and the placements team. The result of this will be reflected in Clinical Placement Assessment.

If a student has experienced considerable absences and has not adequately demonstrated their clinical competency during the placement, the supervisor may be required to fail the student. This will be at the discretion of their supervisor; however, we would encourage a discussion between practice and university staff so that we can ensure all options have been explored.