Observership Policy

Observerships (Policy # CC-02)
Approved by: School of Medicine Executive Committee
Lead Writer: Unknown
Last Revised: September 11, 2008

Preamble

Exposure to clinical practice settings is very valuable to students in the first and second medical years.  They serve a dual purpose of providing insights which can be helpful in career planning but also provide exposure to practicing physicians which are extremely valuable in modeling appropriate professional behaviours.  The purpose of this policy is to ensure that these observerships occur and are appropriately structured.  

Specific Recommendations

1.    An observership can be defined as a minimum half day or 4 hour experience with a Queen’s University faculty member in a clinical setting.  

2.    An observership is not to be taken during previously scheduled learning events.

3.    It is the responsibility of the student to contact faculty members and make appropriate arrangements.

4.    These observerships will be documented with mechanisms to be developed by the Undergraduate Office. Observerships must have documentation of attendance from the faculty and should contain a brief (3 paragraph) reflection of the CANMEDS roles observed during the observership.

5.    This program will be supervised by the Director of Career Counseling who will review and deal individually with any incidents of noncompliance.  

6.    The completion of 8 half day observerships will be recorded in the student’s Dean’s Letter.