Medical School

Participation, attendance and engagement guidelines

The Medical Program Participation Guidelines have been developed to support you to engage optimally with your learning in the Doctor of Medicine (MD) Program with your wellbeing in mind. The guidelines aim to:

  1. Clarify the expectations of you as a medical student in relation to participating optimally in the MD Program while preparing for future professional practice.
  2. Outline the flexible approaches available to you to prioritise your health.
  3. Inform you about the processes in place to enable you to manage absences.

The Medical School expects you to read these guidelines carefully, and that you will take responsibility to look after your health and manage your learning in accordance with these guidelines. The School encourages you to inform relevant personnel and to seek support early as outlined in these guidelines.

  1. Overview
  2. Participation and attendance requirements
  3. Out-of-hours expectations
  4. Absence notification and documentation
  1. Implications for lack of participation, attendance and unnotified absences
  2. Transition, Orientation and Introductory Periods
  3. Student support

2. Participation and attendance requirements

You are expected to attend, participate and engage in all Learning Experiences. There is a significant component of experiential learning required for the practice of Medicine. This requires you to be in attendance and to actively participate within learning environments.

In order to reflect the importance of this learning, your attendance and participation may be noted in all face-to-face sessions. 

You are expected to be on time for all Learning Experiences and remain present throughout the session. Late arrival or early departure will likely inhibit your ability to adequately participate in the activity and does not reflect professional courtesy towards teaching staff. Furthermore, lateness impacts on your peers’ learning.  The tutor or clinical teaching staff supervising the session will consider your punctuality and attendance in determining the quality of participation.

Approach to support and early Intervention

As Medical students it is important to proactively seek help and support if you are facing challenges that are impacting your attendance and participation. Please reach out to your Learning Community and the Medical Student Support Team to discuss any concerns and review the Student wellbeing and success website for further guidance.

Early intervention and supporting you to succeed is important to the Medical School and therefore your tutor/supervisor will notify your Learning Community if you are absent for more than 10% of a particular learning activity or ‘learning block’ as defined below. If you have not previously discussed this with your Learning Community, they will reach out to discuss the need for further support as well as opportunities and requirements for make-up Learning Experiences. This applies to all Learning Experiences, including those where attendance is not directly noted.

Minimum time as a requirement for experiential learning

If there is concern that you have not met the minimum time in a learning block to obtain the necessary experiential learning, then this will be flagged to the Learning Community by your tutor/supervisor and considered with respect to your progression (see progression component within course guide for details). 

The minimum time can broadly be considered as attending and participating in at least 80% of an immersion, longitudinal placement, sequence of learning Experiences or learning block. This applies to all Learning Experiences, including those where attendance is not directly noted. Please note, that context of absence, engagement with make-up Learning Experiences and performance within that learning block will all be considered in determining whether a student has obtained the necessary experiential learning.

A learning block is defined as follows:

  • In year 1 and 2 a learning block is equivalent to the 8-9 week sections between break weeks 
  • In year 3 and 4 a learning block is a core component of an immersion – e.g. Anaesthetics within Critical Care Plus 

Minimum time can vary depending on the immersion. These thresholds are identified as a guide.

You are expected to notify the Medical School as well as staff impacted, of your absence in a timely manner.

Independent learning

Graduate learning outcomes include those related to the ability to grow and learn independently. As this is expected of students, there should be sufficient time to undertake this activity. It is important to notethat independent learning can be completed remotely.

As a general timetabling guide, clinical immersion experience/scheduled Learning Experiences should account for approximately 80% of your learning time, with independent learning approximately 20%. This will vary week to week, year to year and also between immersions.

In this context independent learning includes:

  • preparation
  • reflection
  • exploring around the content
  • independent and group study. 

If you are finding balancing your study needs in an immersion challenging, please discuss this with your Learning Community.

Learning (revision) weeks and Learning Development weeks include both Independent Learning time and scheduled face-to-face Learning Experiences and these guidelines apply to these weeks.