General Responsibility of Supervising Physician
• Maintains professional relationship with trainee at all times.
• Is cognizant and abides by standards and guidelines of the College, RCPSC, CFPC; Dalhousie Faculty of Medicine regulations, policies and guidelines and any relevant affiliation agreement with health care facilities and District Health Authorities (DHAs).
• Permits delegation of practice and decision making to the trainee only to an extent that is justified by the competence and experience of the trainee.
Attending Physician Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of the attending physician to provide appropriate supervision for postgraduate trainee s at all times and to:
1. Advise the patient that postgraduate trainee s may be involved in his/her care.
2. Review the chart with the postgraduate trainee within 24 hours of the admission or consultation and routinely thereafter. This includes:
- A discussion of the findings and their significance, and of patient management;
- Involvement and agreement concerning major decisions relating to management;
- Involvement with the planning and performance of procedures, including direct supervision when required by patient safety or requested by the trainee;
- Identification of aspects of the case affording educational emphasis.
3. Be available by pager or phone at all times, if not available in person.
4. Know the postgraduate trainees level of training, experience and competence in order to allow graded responsibility and delegation of practice.
Postgraduate Trainees Responsibilities
It is the responsibility of every postgraduate trainee to:
1. Inform every patient (or family) that they are on a teaching unit and that patient care is a team approach under the supervision of the attending physician.
2. Notify the attending or consulting physician when:
- An emergency patient is admitted to hospital
- A patient’s condition is deteriorating
- There is an unexpected or unanticipated death of a patient
- The diagnosis or management is in doubt
- A procedure with possible serious morbidity is planned
- There is a question as to primary responsibility or admitting service
- A patient has been examined or treated in an out-patient setting (unless such an out-patient encounter has been previously approved either for that particular patient or for a category of patients for which the trainee has demonstrated competence).
3. Recognizing the degree to which responsibility has been delegated to the resident, notify the responsible physician regarding a patient's discharge from an emergency setting or hospital inpatient service in a timely manner, unless such discharge has been previously approved either for that particular patient or for a category of patients for which the trainee has demonstrated competence.
