Attendance Policy

Students pursuing the MD degree at HMS are physicians in training who should meet the highest standards of professional conduct and responsibility. It is expected that you will attend all clerkship and longitudinal activities during the PCE. However, we recognize that there are unique times when you may not be able to attend these activities due to unexpected circumstances (e.g. illness and other emergent life events that conflict with your clinical schedule) or due to accessing services to address a health care issue. When those arise, we ask that you work diligently to preemptively notify your PCE Director, your clerkship director and coordinator, and your team as soon as possible. All parties must be notified 4 weeks in advance to the start date of the rotation.

Please also note the following:

• If you are requesting to miss time from your clerkships for any reason, it MUST be approved by the PCE Director & the Clerkship Director. For urgent/emergent absences (illness or emergencies), you MUST notify the PCE Director and Clerkship Director the day of the occurrence.
• At the discretion of the Clerkship Director and the Director of the PCE, It is important to be aware that you may be unable to pass the clerkship (and/or be expected to make up any time missed from your clerkships) when the following occur, per clerkship:
  • Medicine/Surgery-12 Week Rotation: Greater than 3 missed days
  • Obstetrics & Gynecology/Pediatrics-6 Week Rotation: Greater than 2 missed days
  • Neurology/Psychiatry/Radiology-4 Week Rotation: Greater than 1 missed day
• Illness or Expected Absence In case of illness, you may be asked to stay home and be cleared by Occupational Health if you are contagious.
• Emergent Scenario: If you have an emergent situation that arises unexpectedly and cannot be avoided, please notify all those responsible for your clinical education – including the clerkship director and clerkship coordinator, your supervising resident and attending physician on your team. It is imperative that others have knowledge of your absence.
• Healthcare Appointment: Please note that it is permissible to be excused from PCE duties to see a health care practitioner
• Weekend Responsibilities: Your clerkship directors and coordinators will provide you with your weekend schedule for each clerkship as soon as they have it (often at or before clerkship orientation). Please check with individual Clerkship directors and coordinators regarding clinical duties during the last weekend of each rotation. Policy surrounding clinical assignments during that weekend are at the discretion of the clerkship directors.

Holidays

Summer Break, Thanksgiving Break, and Christmas Break are excused Holidays for the PCE. Specific details regarding start and return times are listed below. Importantly, observation of all other Harvard observed holidays (July 4th, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans' Day, Martin Luther King Day, President’s Day, and Memorial Day) is at the discretion of the PCE site or Clerkship. In most clerkships, these days are NOT excused given the necessity of patient care and need to join your team for care activities. Therefore, such dates should NOT be assumed as excused holidays. In rare circumstances, students will have one or more of these dates free, but such dates are usually known only at the start of each clerkship. Students are advised to reach out to their clerkship directors well in advance with any questions in this regard.

The Full HMS Attendance Policy can be found here: http://medstudenthandbook.hms.harvard.edu/702-vacations-and-holidays

CANVAS Absentee Form