Medical Student Duty Hours Policy
In order to encourage a well-rounded, balanced journey through the clinical years of medical school, it is the policy of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine that duty hours of medical students should reflect the general guidelines set forth for residents by the ACGME.
We expect that:
- Total required educational and clinical activities should not exceed eighty hours per week.
- Students should take one day off in seven.*
- Whenever possible, we suggest that when students take in-house call, they should be allowed to leave at noon of the following day, but should be expected to return for required didactic components of the clerkships.
*While the ACGME requires an average of one day off per seven averaged over a month, we will require this on a weekly basis because of the complications induced by changing teams and services.