Teacher-Learner Expectations in UME

Thank You for Supporting our Medical Student's Educational Experiences!

Highlighted on this page are specific medical student policies and guidelines that the School of Medicine uses to guide its operations and that unite us in our mission to nurture students to become physicians committed to excellence and leaders in innovation, research, health, education, advocacy, and humanistic care.

Our Commitment to the Highest Quality Learning Environment

As educators, UCLA Faculty abide by the values of professional conduct as described in UCLA’s Faculty Code of Conduct (APM-015) and to the UCLA Health Professionalism Code of Conduct. We are committed to providing our trainees with the highest quality learning environment, where there is mutual respect between medical students, residents, fellows, graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, faculty, and all members of the education community. The following are guidelines and expectations set forth by the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which DGSOM has adopted and modified to ensure a positive learning environment. 

DGSOM holds in high regard professional behaviors and attitudes, including altruism, integrity, respect for others and a commitment to excellence. Effective learning is best fostered in an environment of mutual respect between teachers and learners. In the context of medical education, the term “teacher” is used broadly to include peers, resident physicians, full-time and volunteer faculty members, clinical preceptors, nurses, and ancillary support staff, as well as others from whom students learn.

Guiding Principles

Duty: Teachers have a duty to convey the knowledge and skills required for delivering the profession’s standard of care and also to instill the values and attitudes required for preserving the medical profession’s social contract with its patients.

Integrity: Learning environments that are conducive to conveying professional values must be based on integrity. Students and residents learn professionalism by observing and emulating role models who consistently manifest authentic professional values and attitudes. Teachers and learners should display honesty, integrity and compassion. 

Respect: Respect for every individual is fundamental to the ethic of medicine. Mutual respect is
essential for nurturing that ethic. Teachers have a special obligation to ensure that students and residents are always treated and spoken to respectfully and maintain high professional standards in all interactions.

Responsibility of Teachers 

• Treat students fairly and respectfully
• Maintain high professional standards in all interactions
• Be prepared and on time
• Provide relevant and timely information
• Provide explicit learning and behavioral expectations early in a course or clerkship
• Provide timely, focused, accurate and constructive feedback on a regular basis and thoughtful and timely evaluations at the end of a course or clerkship
• Display honesty, integrity and compassion
• Practice insightful (Socratic) questioning, which stimulates learning and self-discovery, and avoid overly aggressive questioning which may be perceived as hurtful, humiliating, degrading or punitive
• Solicit feedback from students regarding their perception of their educational experiences
• Encourage students who experience mistreatment or who witness unprofessional behavior to report the facts immediately
• Create a learning environment that is conducive to different learning styles and mutual respect.
• Recognize that the responsibility of a teacher extends beyond the face-to-face interactions.  You are teaching your students through your actions inside and outside the school and clinical environments. 

Relationships Between Teachers & Students

Students and teachers should recognize the special nature of the teacher-learner relationship which is in part defined by professional role modeling, mentorship, and supervision. Because of the special nature of this relationship, students and teachers should strive to develop their relationship to one characterized by mutual trust, respect, and confidence. They should both recognize the potential for conflict of interest and maintain appropriate boundaries.

Additional Learning Environment Policies

The Medical Student Mistreatment Policy reflects our commitment to a respectful learning environment and reinforces our pledge of zero tolerance for mistreatment of any kind, including any form of retaliation against those who report mistreatment. We expect faculty, residents, staff, and students to report incidents of potential mistreatment utilizing the Mistreatment Incident Reporting Form (MIRF). DGSOM’s Cultural North Star helps us build and maintain an inclusive, mission-driven culture by mapping our decisions, actions, and interactions to a shared framework. We expect medical students, as future physicians, to demonstrate exceptional professionalism and our medical education community shares responsibility for upholding those professional standards. If you have concerns regarding a student’s professionalism, please reference these resources on our website. 

In addition to the important cultural frameworks that have been established, it is also important to highlight the facility requirements that contribute to the learning environment. Each campus and affiliated clinical site must provide adequate study space, relaxation areas, and secure storage. Please ensure you are aware these specific locations at your site.

The Pre-clerkship Student Workload Policy and Clinical Duty Hours Policy ensure our medical students’ wellbeing and health, by providing reasonable work hours and a balanced workload in the pre-clerkship and clinical environments. The DGSOM Shared Learning Environment Expectations provide guidelines regarding curriculum delivery as well as the expectations for participation and performance by all who share our learning environment. Medical students are also expected to adhere to DGSOM’s Attendance Policies while engaged in educational experiences, which include the process and procedures for a student to be excused from classes or clinical activities in order to access health services.

We seek to assure that our students can receive medical care as needed without concern of any conflict between the role of the physician treating them and faculty who are evaluating their performance. Faculty and students must notify the Associate Dean for Student Affairs, Associate Dean for Curriculum, or respective Course/Clerkship Director to request a new student/faculty assignment if faculty are asked to supervise/evaluate someone for whom they have provided clinical care, or with whom they have another family or personal/social relationship. This is outlined in the Duality of Interest Statements.

UCLA Police’s Emergency Procedures ensure a safe environment for our learners. In addition, our students have access to our DGSOM’s Emergency and Help Lines.

Medical Education Objectives, Requirements, and Technical Non-Academic Standards

Upon graduating, we expect DGSOM medical students to demonstrate competence in several key areas, as outlined in our Program Objectives, Required Course Learning Objectives, and Required Clinical Experiences. As educators, we should all be familiar with these competencies and the overall graduation requirements. 

The Technical Non-Academic Standards delineate the essential abilities and characteristics, which in conjunction with academic standards established by the faculty, are requirements for admission, promotion, and graduation. Any student with an existing disability, or who may develop a disability, who seeks an accommodation must notify the UCLA Center for Accessible Education (CAE) in writing and provide adequate documentation prior to the start of coursework and/or education activity in which an accommodation is required. 

Delivery of Exceptional Curriculum with Adequate Supervision and Assessment

We commit to ensuring that our students have meaningful patient care responsibilities and are appropriately supervised, per our clinical supervision policy, when participating in required or elective clinical activities. As educators, we commit to ensuring that we submit timely assessments of student performance within MyCourses so that all students will receive their summative grade within six weeks of completing a course and within four weeks for elective rotations, in accordance with our Grading Policies. 

On our website you will find teaching resources and guidelines, including but not limited to: Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), supporting learners with disabilities, resident as teacher modules, and the one-minute preceptor pdf. You will also find helpful resources under the Learner Assessment & Faculty Evaluation in UME section of this page, including utilizing the Student Performance Evaluation (SPE) tool, how-to guides supporting current assessment and evaluation processes, and a training module for ways to improve narrative feedback. Additionally, you can find professional development opportunities to get you oriented to core competencies and also to pursue long-term career goals and the Office of Academic Affairs for the David Geffen School of Medicine provides School of Medicine departments with a variety of services and events geared toward faculty.

Guaranteeing Transparent Operational Procedures 

Each policy has been through a rigorous process of review and approval by the Dean’s Office and/or our partners in the Shared Governance traditions of the University of California, the Faculty Executive Committee (FEC) and its standing sub-committees: the Medical Education Committee (MEC), Admissions Committee, Admissions Policy Committee (APC), and Committee on Academic Standing, Progress, and Promotion (CASPP). If you have any questions about the policies that guide medical education, please email the Curricular Affairs Office.

The Anti-Discrimination Policy affirms our commitment to maintaining a community dedicated to the advancement, application and transmission of knowledge and creative endeavors through academic excellence, where all people who participate in university programs and activities can work and learn together in an atmosphere free of discrimination, harassment, and retaliation. 

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 sets forth requirements ensuring transparent, confidential operations that protect the privacy of student education records. FERPA governs the release of these records maintained by an educational institution and access to these records. All faculty and staff are required to complete UCLA’s FERPA training if they have access to student records.

All students have the opportunity to appeal any adverse decision related to advancement, graduation, or dismissal as outlined in the Academic and Professional Standing Appeals Process. Students who cancel registration, withdraw, or take a leave of absence may be eligible for a full or partial fee refund as indicated by the UCLA Registrar’s Office Refund Policy.