RESIDENT LEARNING AGREEMENT Clause Samples

RESIDENT LEARNING AGREEMENT. The details of the contractual agreement between the resident, supervisor and the hospital are beyond the scope of this document. Residents often have little or no work experience and enter clinical training programmes immediately following fulltime academic education. As a result, integration into the clinical environment can be intimidating and challenging for a new resident. In addition, most procedures and decisions in clinical environments require ethical consideration. International guidelines which determine the principles of professional conduct, and research and education ethics for medical physicists working in the clinical environment are provided in Appendix I of the IAEA Human Health Series No. 25 [1]. The timely completion of a portfolio requires initiative, time management and motivation which must arise primarily from the resident. Residents need to take initiative to seek out learning opportunities from the clinical environment. Clinical service delivery often takes precedence over the individual expectation of the resident to acquire competencies and a significant proportion of skills development may need to be practiced after-hours. Difficulty in completing the programme is expected to be encountered when a resident has low initiative and/or is slow to accept responsibility. Specific responsibilities of the resident are to meet regularly with the clinical supervisor(s), discuss progress and to review deadlines, fill any gaps in the knowledge related to the corresponding discipline of clinical training. Important outcomes are the ability to practice independently, take responsibility for decisions and actions, display organisational skills, pay attention to detail, communicate effectively and work within an inter-disciplinary team. With regard to maintaining the portfolio, it is important to ensure that the clinical supervisor(s) “signs off” on satisfactory completion of a competency assessment and that the portfolio is kept up-to-date. Residents should prepare in a thorough manner for all assessments required as part of the programme and take every opportunity to develop knowledge and skills and, once acquired, maintain the knowledge and skills. A culture of lifelong learning should be instilled in residents to encourage their realization of the need for on-going continuing professional development (CPD) as a qualified health professional in order to maintain and update knowledge, skills and competencies. Clinical training programmes inc...