Clinical Education Course Expectations

Readiness, Required Trainings & Documentation 

The Director of Clinical Education (DCE) and Core Faculty determine eligibility for each learner to participate in clinical education experiences. Criteria include but are not limited to:

  1. Cumulative 3.0 GPA at both UCSF and SFSU, and in combination
  2. Passing grades and 100% safety on all practical and competency exams
  3. Compliance with professional behavior expectations
  4. Additional for PT 802: Passing grade on acute care qualifying exam
  5. Additional for PT 418: Passing grade on orthopedic and neurological qualifying exams

Learners must also upload required documentation including proof of immunizations and completed trainings to CastleBranch in order to participate in clinical education experiences. Some sites may require additional documents (e.g., recent background check, drug screening) or trainings prior to starting a clinical experience.

Attendance

You are expected to follow the same schedule as your CI during integrated and full-time clinical experiences. Holidays are determined by the schedule of the clinic and not by the program (clinic holiday time does not need to be made up). During their full-time experience, learners should expect to spend over 40 hours per week at their clinic (this includes practicing skills, chart review, and documentation in addition to 35-40 hours of scheduled patient care).

Learners may take up to two sick days during any clinical experience. Absences for reasons other than illness (i.e., discretionary days) are not permitted. If you are ill or have a communicable illness that could put patients at risk, you are expected to: 

  1. call and make contact with the CI/SCCE at your site by 8am that morning
  2. notify the DCE by 8am that morning
  3. submit an Absence Notification Form on each day of absence (link on CLE page)
  4. report the absence in the CPI

In the event of an emergency, go to the nearest emergency room or call 911. You are encouraged to identify local care options through your medical insurance coverage within the first few days at site. If you are absent for more than two days, any additional time must be made up and the DCE will coordinate this with you, the CI, and the SCCE.

If a learner cannot complete a clinical experience due circumstances beyond their control, such as illness, injury, or family emergency, the experience may be graded as incomplete (I). The length and placement of the make-up experience will be determined by the DCE, balancing student preferences with the clinical placement options available at the time. For learners re-entering the curriculum following an approved leave of absence (LOA), the continuation of clinical experiences commences when the DCE is able to identify an appropriate clinical placement.

Confidentiality and Documentation/Charting

All information regarding patients and their families is strictly confidential. It should never be shared with classmates, friends or family, anyone on social media, or with other health care providers except in need-to-know situations such as emergencies. Breach of patient confidentiality is a federal offense (HIPAA) and may be subject to penalty under law, as well as no credit for the clinical experience course. Assignments for the clinical experience must be de-identified of all personally identifiable information (PII) prior to submission. Learners must request permission from the clinic to use any information outside of the site, including procedures or patient care protocols. Each facility is responsible for informing the student of their specific confidentiality and information-sharing regulations during orientation to the site, and each student is responsible for clarifying and following them.

Documentation needs to be timely, accurate, thorough, and concise. Each site will have standards for documentation to which the student must adhere. The following should be observed as general guidelines:

  • Patient charts may never be removed from the clinical facility.
  • Electronic patient documentation may never be saved on personal computers or flash drives.
  • Charts should not be left in a treatment area when the student or a staff member is not present.
  • Patients may not have access to their medical record unless they have gone through the appropriate procedures as determined by the site.
  • All documentation should be satisfactorily completed prior to the end of each clinical day.
  • Only abbreviations approved by the site should be used in documentation.
  • All documentation should be legible and use appropriate grammar and punctuation.

Dress Code

For clinical experiences, please follow the dress code specified by each facility, which is the final authority on dress code policy at that site. Inquire about the facility’s guidelines prior to each clinical experience, and if they do not have a dress code or the policy is less than comprehensive, please follow the program and UCSF Medical Center Standards.

Grading

Meeting clinical performance expectations and submitting all assignments on time are both required for successful completion of clinical courses. Performance standards and expectations, grading policies and course requirements, as well as the rights and responsibilities of learners and CIs/SCCEs, are all outlined in each course syllabus (PT 410, PT 801, PT 802, and PT 418).

The DCE is responsible for determining final grades for all full-time clinical experience courses, with consideration of input from the CI and other important contextual factors related to the learner’s performance and clinical setting.

A situation may arise where you need extra time to successfully complete a clinical experience; this will be determined by the Director of Clinical Education (DCE) in consultation with your Clinical Instructor (CI), the Site Coordinator for Clinical Education (SCCE) at the clinical site, and/or the Academic and Professionalism Review Committee (APRC). You are required to pass every integrated and full-time clinical experience in order to be eligible for graduation. If you receive a U (unsatisfactory) or NC (no credit) grade in any integrated or full-time clinical experience, you will be placed on academic notice and asked to meet with an APRC.

Integrated Clinical Experience (PT 410): If you receive a U in PT 410, you will be required to retake the course at the earliest time possible. You will not be able to proceed to full-time clinical experiences until the ICE is passed. If you retake PT 410 and receive a U grade a second time, you will be referred to the APRC which will determine whether you can continue in the program.


Full-Time Clinical Experiences (PT 801, 802, 418): If you receive an NC in PT 801 or PT 802, or a U in PT 418, you will be required to retake the experience at a site selected by the DCE, and within a reasonable timeframe balanced with your academic schedule. Given that some didactic coursework requires having participated in a full-time clinical experience, you may be required to delay enrolling in subsequent coursework until successful completion of the requisite clinical experience. The time required to satisfactorily make-up the failed clinical experience may vary from one to twelve weeks.


If a student fails two of the three full-time clinical experiences or fails a clinical experience twice, they may be subject to dismissal from the program.

Incident Reporting

You will work in a variety of health care delivery settings and provide care to a variety of patients with infectious illnesses. Unexpected incidents at site may occur related to patient care, and these must be reported to the DCE within 24 hours. Additionally, most clinics have site-specific policies and procedures for reporting incidents, and students must follow those requirements as well. If you are in doubt as to whether an incident should be reported, please consult with your CI or another supervisor and the DCE as soon as possible.

Gen AI and Personal Devices 

Our program discourages the use of Generative AI or large language models (LLMs) in part-time or full-time clinical experience; if used, all content must be HIPAA compliant. Clinic names must not be included and any information gathered through AI must be verified using evidence-based sources. Learners are responsible for ensuring the accuracy and appropriateness of all content used in assignments and documentation.

Personal phone calls at the clinical site should be limited to emergency situations only and should be cleared with your CI. Please do not use personal cell phones or utilize clinic computers for personal use during working hours. Many sites have specific policies for electronics, and these policies must be followed.

Student Evaluation of Experience

At the end of each full-time experience, learners are required to complete the APTA Physical Therapist Student Evaluation (PTSE) of their clinical instruction and the site. Feedback on the CI's teaching effectiveness and learning environment is reviewed by the DCE to ensure continuous quality improvement of clinical experiences. Other information about the site and how best to be prepared for success there is made available to future learners to review as they prepare for their preference lists. We encourage learners to provide constructive and respectful feedback to their CI and the clinic.