Medical students are assigned to take in-house call with and under the supervision of the senior psychiatry resident (SAR) on call. Two students are assigned each day. Call goes from 5PM until 6:30AM on weekdays, from 8AM to 8AM on Saturdays, and from 8AM to 6:30AM on Sundays. Students are responsible for calling the SAR via the MUH operator by 5PM on the weekdays and by 8AM on the weekends they are assigned to take call. The call rooms are located at the Charleston Memorial Hospital on the second floor, right above the Emergency Room facilities.
It is imperative that each student on call talk personally with the SAR in order to make arrangements for the night/day. Do not rely on the operator or another student to make these arrangements.
Students on call are expected to respond to calls throughout the entire night. Students are required to perform histories and physicals on admitted patients and to accompany the resident in seeing emergency outpatients and inpatients at hospitals in the Medical University complex. Students may also work with the Access Center admitting team at the Institute of Psychiatry. The call experience allows students to see acute clinical syndromes and psychiatric problems which are not present on their daytime rotation sites.
At your attendings’ discretion you may be excused after 1:00 PM on post call days if you have completed all of your work and there are no didactics scheduled after 1:00 PM. Attendings will be encouraged to take into consideration how much sleep the students received. If the student received sufficient sleep while on call, he/she will not be excused early the following day. Residents will not be allowed to excuse post call students.
Call is a requirement for successful completion of this rotation. The first failure to report for call will result in the final grade being dropped by .5 point. Should a student miss two calls, he/she will be required to repeat the entire rotation.
Should you require an escort at any time during your on-call hours, the MUSC Security Police provide this service on a 24-hour basis. Police will be there within 5-15 minutes.
Although every effort has been made to make the number of on-call assignments equitable, this is not always possible. If you find that widely disparate numbers of calls have been assigned to some students, please bring this to the attention of Dr. Shaw or Ms. Smith, and we will attempt to remedy the inequity. Although changes to the call schedule are discouraged, they are allowed when absolutely necessary. A copy of the call schedule has been posted in the call room at Charleston Memorial Hospital. It is the responsibility of the student to find another student who is willing to exchange call or substitute for him/her and mark the change on the posted schedule in the call room. You must also notify the clerkship coordinator of any changes that you wish to make.
