Year 3 Clerkship

The 3rd year surgery clerkship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center is among the required clerkships in surgery offered to students enrolled in the Geffen School of Medicine at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), (Course Number SU019). The purpose of the clerkship is to expose junior medical students to the important concepts, diseases, and practices of general surgery. The following 3-week rotations are offered and are assigned by UCLA:

Acute Care Surgery (2 students)
Advanced General Surgery (1 student)
Minimally Invasive Surgery (1 student)

The Goals and Objectives for each course may be found on ANGEL web site.

Please make sure you read all of the information below before you start your clerkship...and refer to it often.

Patient Privacy & HIPPA

The Cedars-Sinai patient electronic medical record is called Web/VS. Please guard your login and password closely and do not share with anyone. Also, do not borrow a login or password from your resident. Patient privacy and medical records security is of utmost importance to us at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and we implement a zero-tolerance policy. Do not search any patient with whom you do not have direct medical involvement. This includes friends, relatives, and celebrities. Diversion from this practice will result in automatic termination of your rotation.

One week prior to start of Rotation

It is mandatory that you review, complete, and return the following paperwork to Sheila Yancy (Fax 310-423-5454, Email ) at least 1 week prior to your arrival.

Day Zero

Contact the Chief Resident of your service and ask when you should meet the team for morning rounds on Day 1. To check to see who your Chief is, refer to the resident Call Schedule emailed to you by Sheila, call Sheila (310-423-3544), or call the Cedars-Sinai Page Operator (310-423-3276).

Day One

- Directions to the hospital.

- Park in lot 2 on George Burns Drive, between Beverly Blvd and Alden Drive. Bring your parking ticket with you so it can be validated until your parking permit is set up. Note that a $15 refundable deposit is needed to receive a parking permit during your Clerkship stay.

- Round with your team in the morning and get orientated to the team dynamics.

- Meet with Sheila in her office (Thalians Building, Room W221) at 8:30 a.m. to review the paperwork, receive your badge, get your computer login, apply for parking permit, etc.

- Some areas you will be directed to:

  • ID Badge: South Tower, Lower Level, Room A-812
  • Linen Services for scrubs: South Tower, Lower Level, ask for Lina
  • Parking: in parking Lot south of Thalians Bldg

- Meet with Dr. Towfigh (Thalians Building, Room W222) after your meeting with Sheila. This is a brief introductory meeting to help orient you to your Clerkship

- Make an appointment to meet with Dr. Bruce Gewertz, Chairman of the Department of Surgery. Call or drop by his assistant's office on Day 1. Dr. Gewertz's assistant's name is Sherri-Marie Robinson (310-423-5884, 8215 North Tower)

On-Call Dates & Days Off

You are expected to be on call on average every 6th day (i.e., 3 days total), with 1 full day off per week. An on-call schedule is emailed to you prior to your Clerkship that strictly delineates which days you will be on-call and which will be your days off. In general, care is taken not to assign you to be on-call or post-call on the day of your Doctoring session. You will be on-call at least one weekend day.

Changes in your on-call and days off schedule cannot be made unless cleared by Dr. Towfigh.

Note that weekends are working days, so if you are not assigned to be off on a weekend day, you are expected to come to the hospital, round with your team, and carry on with normal patient care activities.

When you are on-call, you are to report to the 3rd year resident on-call for Trauma once your activities with your assigned Team are completed. That resident is the "consult resident" and will be fielding trauma and non-trauma emergencies throughout the ER and hospital. Give the resident your pager number so that you can be paged if a trauma or surgery consult comes to the ER. You should be shadowing the 3rd year resident as much as possible, and scrubbing in on cases with the Chief Resident that take place on that service throughout the evening. If you are assigned to the Acute Care Surgery team, you should continue to follow those patients who you help take care of while on-call.

Medical student call rooms are located in Room A304.

Doctoring

You are not expected to come to the Medical Center on your assigned Doctoring day. You are excused from all patient care activities on those dates.

Educational Conferences Calendar

Mandatory conferences include:
Tuesdays: 4pm Resident conference at Cedars-Sinai, 8215 NT
Wednesdays:* 7am Grand Rounds at UCLA
Thursdays: 7am Resident Education Series at Cedars-Sinai, ECC-B
8am Matrix Conference at Cedars-Sinai, ECC-B
*On Wednesdays, you are expected to report back to your team at Cedars-Sinai no later than 11am. On this day, you are not expected to come to Cedars-Sinai for morning rounds.

In addition, each service has their own educational conference and it is expected that you attend and participate in them. Refer to the Resident Handbook for details.

Bedside Rounds

Every Friday at 11am, you are to meet Dr. Towfigh at 8215 North Tower for Bedside Rounds. Have a formal oral bedside presentation prepared on one of your patients. It is recommended that you read up on your patient's illness, presentation, and surgical recovery in order to gain the most from this 1 hour session.

Last Monday of Rotation

On the last Monday of your rotation, please fill in and return the Check Out Form to Sheila Yancy.

Last Day

On your last day of patient care at Cedars-Sinai, please complete and return the following to Shelia Yancy*:
  • Check Out form
  • Patient Encounter Sheet (see your course's goals & objectives)
  • Turn in your badge
  • Turn in your pager(s)
*If your last day is a weekend or it is after-hours, please turn in the above mentioned articles to the "Medical Student Drop-off Box" loacted in the Thalians Building 2nd Floor West.

Absences

Up to 3 days of excused absence due to illness is allowable during your Year 3 Clerkship. Similarly, in the case of medical conferences at which you are presenting a paper, up to 3 days is allowable during your Year 3 Clerkship. All other absences are considered unexcused and the missed time must be made up at a later date, which will be coordinated in conjunction with the Clerkship Director¿s Office at CHS.

Regardless of the reason for absence, please make sure that you contact Dr. Towfigh (310-423-8353; Email ) as well as the Chief of your service if you cannot arrive to the hospital.