Attendance

Due to the intense nature and rapid pace of the curriculum, attendance for all classes and required activities within the Department of Physician Assistant Studies is mandatory. Students are expected to be on time for class and should plan their schedules accordingly. Failure to arrive on time is considered a professionalism violation and may result in a meeting with the APPC chair or committee. Please try to schedule medical and personal appointments around the class schedule as much as possible.

The PA program strives to prepare students for professional practice. To this end, the program uses a “personal time off” (PTO) model based on professional expectations to manage student time away from the program. Attendance is mandatory for all aspects of the program; however, the program recognizes that circumstances occur, such as illness, important appointments, family health requirements, and mental health needs, that require brief absences from program attendance.  Thus, students are permitted a total of 10 days away from the program throughout the didactic year.  These days are distributed as follows: each student begins the program with a “bank” of 5 days that they may use in cases where absence from the program is necessary. Subsequently, students accrue an additional day at the end of February, April, June, August, and October. As life can be unpredictable, students are strongly advised to save their days for instances of contagious illness or other significant need. Please be aware that some courses are presented in a more compressed manner and consider the effect of an absence from one of these classes on your acquisition of new material. Several rules govern the execution of this policy.

• With the exception of acute illness, students should request a day off at least 48 hours in advance of the planned absence.  Requests are made on the Department Resources page on Moodle and are reviewed and approved by the APPC Chair. Students should also notify all current course directors of the absence via email.
• Absences CANNOT be used 
• on days when there are exams, quizzes, or labs; on a day that involves specialized instruction in areas such as ACLS testing or GYN/GU training; or on any day in which standardized patients (SPs) are involved in an activity. 
• during the Fall II module in the didactic year or Call Back Weeks in the clinical year due to the unreproducible nature of the training required during these courses.
• The only exception to this rule is in cases of acute illness.
• Students may not use consecutive PTO days except in cases of acute illness. Students using more than 2 consecutive days due to illness must bring a note from their health care provider.
• Students are responsible to make up any work/content missed during their absence by communicating with fellow students and reviewing available online course materials.
• Instructors are not responsible for reviewing/re-teaching information taught on days missed by students.
• Instructors are not required to zoom/provide virtual content/record class periods missed.
• This policy does not accommodate partial-day absences. Any partial day missed will count as a full day.
• Activities directly related to student government functions or student representation of the program (e.g., PAEA Future Educator Fellowship, AAPA Leadership and Advocacy Summit) are exempt from this policy.
• ANY OTHER exception to this policy must be discussed in advance with the program director and approved before the formal absence request is submitted.
• Students with one unexcused absence will receive a professionalism warning. Students with a second unexcused absence will be placed on probation for unprofessional conduct.  A third unexcused absence will result in the student meeting with the APPC for consideration of dismissal.

If the absence request is for an ADA accommodated condition, the student should also notify Elon Disability Support Services of the absence.

Tardiness Policy

As noted in the Professional Conduct Policy, arriving late and unprepared for scheduled activities and appointments is considered unprofessional. Students should arrive to class and be fully prepared prior to the start time, so that the activity can begin as scheduled and to not be a disruption to the class. On the day of an examination, students are expected to be in their seats five minutes prior to the scheduled start time for the examination. No allowances for extra time will be given.