When a student’s diagnosed medical condition, or the diagnosed medical condition of an immediate family member prevents the student from attending a clinical, the student must notify the clinical site and the ACCE as soon as possible. In the event a student has a diagnosed medical condition during a clinical experience, prior to the student returning to the clinical experience, the student must have written verification of the condition with a release for full clinical participation or written restrictions. This must be signed by the treating physician and submitted to the ACCE. Depending upon the nature of the restrictions, the student may be allowed to continue the clinical experience or may need to wait until the treating physician signs a full release for clinical participation. Any absence from the clinical reported on the final evaluation that was not previously reported to the ACCE by the student may result in failure of the clinical course. The required forty hours per week represent a minimum expectation. Students may occasionally work late or come in early to take advantage of a learning opportunity or to complete unfinished tasks, just as there is an occasional need to exceed scheduled hours in the work setting. While the clinical instructor may offer the student an option of leaving early on day in consideration of additional time spent on a previous occasion, it is not permissible for a student to routinely calculate “compensatory time” to substantially alter the hours of the clinical rotation. There are times that schedules must be changed to accommodate certain situations. The student is responsible to notify the ACCE as far in advance as possible of any such circumstances. This is for extreme circumstances only (i.e., documented death in the immediate family, documented illness, documented accident, etc.). ALL CHANGES MUST FIRST BE APPROVED BY THE ACCE, then by the clinical instructor. Students who fail to follow this procedure will not be allowed to change their schedule. Note: personal plans (vacations, wedding, etc.) are not sufficient
grounds for approval of a change in schedule. Failure to follow this procedure is a breach of professional behavior and could result in an F (Fail).
The PTA Program requires a minimum of 15 weeks (600 clinical internship hours). Therefore, any absence during a clinical affiliation is unacceptable. Procedure: • If the student expects to be absent from the clinic during the internship, they MUST notify the CI and ACCE directly. Voicemail will record the information if the CI and ACCE are not available to take the call. If a student is unable to reach the ACCE by phone, the student must email immediately. This email will also be used for the date and time stamp of notification. • All absences MUST be made up prior to the end of the clinical internship. Clinical absences are not to be made up at the expense of designated lecture/lab time that occurs on campus. It is imperative that the student attend the total number of hours. Hours for the make-up must be approved by the ACCE. • It is the responsibility of the student to contact their CI to make arrangements to make up time missed. If a student is absent from the clinic or has missed a
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Physical Therapist Assistant Program
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