MUSC Internal Medicine  

Medical Student Duty Hours Policy

(This is a modification of the MUSC COM policy)

Duty Hours

Duty hours are defined as all clinical and academic activities related to the education of the medical student; i.e., patient evaluation, time spent in-house during call activities, and scheduled activities such as conferences. Duty hours do not include reading time or homework done spent away from the clerkship or elective site.

Duty hours must be limited to 80 hours per week, inclusive of all in-house call activities. The 80 hour per week limit is defined as an average maintained over a 6-week period within the clerkship. Medical students must be provided with 1 day in 7 free from all educational and clinical responsibilities, averaged over the clerkship, inclusive of call. One day is defined as 1 continuous 24-hour period free from all clinical and educational duties.

On-call Activities

The objective of on-call activities is to provide medical students with a continuity of patient evaluation experiences throughout a 24-hour period. In-house call is defined as those duty hours beyond the normal work day, when medical students are required to be immediately available in the assigned institution. In-house call must occur no more frequently than every third night. Students are not required to do more than 24 hours of in-house call plus up to 8 additional hours to participate in didactic activities and maintain the continuity of medical and surgical care (hospital rounds).  Students may choose to stay past the 32 hours if t hey feel it would be educationally beneficial.  For example, to watch a particular procedure.

Monitoring

The clerkship director and faculty will monitor the demands of at-home call in their clerkships, and make scheduling adjustments as necessary. Students are requested to report infractions of the duty hour policy to their clerkship director.