Student Duty Hours

Authorizing Body:        Curriculum Committee

Date Issued:                 October 1, 2015

Last Update:                 June 25, 2018

Last Reviewed by:        The Office of Medical Education

Scope and Applicability:

All students of Oakland University William Beaumont School of Medicine

Standard Practice Guideline:

In the clinical education programs, OUWB medical students will abide by the duty hours restrictions applied to residents, as defined by the Accreditation Committee for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME).

The basic duty hours rules are as follows:

• Maximum hours of work per week 
  Duty hours must be limited to 80 hours per week, averaged over a 4-week period, inclusive of all in-house call activities. 
  Requests for Duty Hours exceptions will not be considered.
  
  
• Mandatory time free of duty 
  
  
• Students must be scheduled for a minimum of one day free of duty every 7 days, averaged over a 4-week period.
  Duty periods of medical students must not exceed 24 hours in duration. 
  
  
• Minimum time off between scheduled duty periods 
  Medical students should have 10 hours – and must have 8 hours – free of duty between scheduled duty periods.
  
  
• Maximum frequency of in-house night float 
  Medical students must not be scheduled for more than 6 consecutive nights of Night Float.

Procedures:

• Clinical education programs and clerkships (i.e. Clerkship Directors) should include a statement about duty hours in syllabi and at orientation.

• Medical students are expected to monitor their own duty hours and report when duty hours are violated.

• Students who approach and/or exceeds duty hours, the student should take the initiative to inform the course/clerkship director and supervising physicians.

• Students are expected to report duty hours on course/clerkship evaluations.

• The school and clerkship directors will monitor duty hours periodically, identify clinical settings in which violations are more likely to occur and make adjustments to the clinical education program.

• The curriculum committee should review duty hours policy and violations at least once annually.

Definitions:

Duty hours - Duty hours are defined as all clinical and academic activities related to clinical assignments; this applies to all electives and required clerkships. This includes all scheduled clinical time, such as inpatient and outpatient clinical care, in-house call, short call, night float and day float, transfer of patient care, and administrative activities related to patient care such as completing medical records and ordering and reviewing diagnostic tests.

Hours spent on activities that are required by the curriculum, including assembly days, block lectures, Simulation Learning Institute activities, OSCEs and SHELF exams, are all considered a part of duty hours.

Duty hours do not include reading, studying, and academic preparation time, such as time spent away from the patient care unit preparing for presentations or journal club.