34 Personal Day Policy
Faculty recognize that due to illness, unavoidable personal business, or weather conditions (e.g., doctor/dentist, childcare, car trouble, snowy roads, etc.) students may need to take time off from clinic. If a student plans to be absent from clinic, they must inform their CP at least 60 minutes prior to the start of their shift and document their absence in the Evalue tracking system.
Students must demonstrate achievement of the minimum objectives outlined for clinical experience courses regardless of the student’s attendance pattern. In any individual clinical course, a student may use up to 10% (rounded to the nearest half day) of the allotted clinical days in the course for personal time. No grade penalty will be assigned for the use of these days, provided the student follows attendance recording and call-in procedures.
A personal day is seven (7) clinical hours and a half personal day is three and a half (3.5) clinical hours. Personal days are assigned to each clinical course as follows:
| Course | Number of Personal Days Allowed Per semester |
| R151 | 3 |
| R171 | 3 |
| R270 | 4 |
| R271 | 4 |
| R272 | 4 |
Limitations on Use of Full and Half Personal Days
- Half P-Days may be taken in the morning (extenuating circumstances) or afternoon. Half-day morning absences should ONLY be taken in cases when there is no alternative (i.e. physician only available in am, fasting blood work, child’s school delay)
- Personal days may not be saved or transferred over from course to course.
- Personal time may not be taken on a Saturday.
- A student will not come to clinic when they have a fever, contagious, or are taking narcotics or sedatives that could jeopardize patient safety or their own safety. Other examples of inappropriate times to be in clinic are, and not limited to, elective or emergency surgery where the student has not been released from a physician’s care, taking prescription drugs or over the counter medications that alter thinking or judgement, or any other time the student is too ill to work for ANY reason.
- Students returning to clinic after being under a physician’s care for extreme illness, hospitalization, and/or surgery will only be allowed back in clinic if they provide a “Release to full duty” letter from the physician. This letter must be presented to or electronically sent, to the Clinical Coordinator prior to the expected return date.
All p-days entered in Evalue must indicate if a half or full-day is taken in the comments section of Evalue
Absence on Saturdays at Base Hospitals
Students assigned to a Saturday rotation at one of the base hospitals are not allowed to use personal time off. This is due to the limited number of assigned Saturday rotations. Should a student become ill and not able to work the assigned shift, the missed Saturday must be made up. Missed days are counted as personal days and the student must make up the missed assignment during the semester of the occurrence at the assigned hospital. Students must meet with the CP to schedule the make-up day within one week of the absence.
Failure to reschedule the missed assignment within one week will result in the deduction of an additional personal day(s). Failure to make up the missed assignment during the semester of the occurrence will result in a -1 letter grade deduction for the clinical course. Repeated incidences of missing Saturday clinical assignments will result in clinical probation.
|
To report a personal day, students must do the following:
|
|
| Weekends & Weekdays |
Contact CI at least 60 minutes before the start of the shift on the scheduled day (Use CIs preferred method of contact)
All p-days must be entered in Evalue within the same day of the absence. Students must indicate in the notes section of time tracking system in Evalue if they are taking a full or half p-day.
All half p-days must indicate if an a.m. or p.m. time is being used. This must be entered in Evalue in the notes section of Time Tracking within the same day. Please keep in mind, morning half p-days are NOT allowed unless extenuating circumstances are provided & approved by the Clinical Instructor.
Note: If using a half personal day, not only will the student email the CI 60 minutes prior to the start of the shift but they will also show TWO time clock entries in Evalue (one for clinic hours and one for p-day hours).
|
| Illness- working >3.5 hours |
CIs must approve an early release for illness. After notifying the CI, clock out with a note in comments that a full p-day was approved due to illness. In addition, clock in/out again under the personal day “task” to electronically submit the absence/p-day in Evalue .
Working less than 3.5 hours out of a 7 hour shift is considered a full p-day.
Working more than 3.5 hours out of a 7 hour shift is considered a half p-day.
If leaving clinic early for an emergency situation: Students must obtain permission to leave the assigned clinical area from their clinical instructor. If the clinical instructor cannot be reached, the clinical coordinator or program director may give the student permission to leave. This policy is for emergency situations only. Students who are given permission to leave clinic early will be charged personal time following the same policy for illness. Students not receiving proper permission to leave will be considered “cutting clinic” and will incur a full letter grade reduction and use of one personal day.
Clinical faculty and all hospital staff working with students (e.g. technologists, nurses and physicians) reserve the right to send a student home if they feel they are jeopardizing the health of the patients, the staff, other students or themselves.
|