Patient Logs - Frequently Asked Questions
Which patients do you log?
For most clerkships, you should log every patient that is assigned to you. However, on clerkships with high patient volumes (e.g. Family Medicine), clerkship directors will give you specific instructions about how to log in limited numbers of patients (e.g. logging patients only a few days a week). There are also instances where it makes sense to log in a patient not specifically assigned to you but with whom you experienced the key elements of their clinical presentation. (For example, there may be a patient on your team with an interesting electrolyte abnormality that everyone discusses in detail. If you believe you have learned as much about the presentation as the person assigned to that patient, you may log it in.) There is no penalty for logging in more patients than required.
Do I need to log in the same patient every day that I see them?
No, do not log in the same patient daily. However, if the patient develops a new clinical presentation or requires a procedure, you should consider logging that in.
How do I log a presentation or procedure that is not on the list?
The Clerkship Directors purposely tried to keep the required list as short as possible rather than as inclusive as possible. For clinical presentations, first try to find the presentation that most closely fits as this is what the faculty track. You can use the notes box to write the specific presentation or diagnosis if you would like to keep track of that. There is an "other" option you can use as well if there is really no presentation that will work. For example, if a patient presented with eye pain from acute glaucoma, you could log this as "vision loss" and you optionally could note in the text box "acute glaucoma". However, a patient being admitted for a possible kidney transplant rejection who is not in acute renal failure, should be logged as an "other" if you need to log in this patient.
What is the difference between "performed" and "assisted" in the procedure log?
Performed means you actually performed the key elements of the procedure (under supervision) whereas assisted means you actually scrubbed in, gowned, up, etc. and helped the resident or faculty. For example, if you prepped the skin and injected the local anesthetic for a thoracocentesis, but the resident actually inserted the needle and withdrew the pleural fluid, this would be "assisted". If you actually inserted the needle to withdraw pleural fluid, this would be "performed".
How do you go about logging only a procedure?
Sometimes you have the opportunity to participate in a procedure for a patient you have never seen before so you don’t want to log in the clinical presentation, since you technically did not evaluate the patient for that clinical presentation. The simplest thing to do is log the patient in as "other" in the clinical presentation field, since it is a required field.
Do I need to enter a comment in the text box for every patient?
No, the comment box is completely optional. Some students like to provide some reflections about the case or just record more details for their own record. Faculty DO NOT track these comments and they have NO effect on your evaluation.
If I already logged in seeing a clinical presentation, procedure, or skill on one clerkship and it is required in another, do I need to log it in again?
You must log in every required presentation, procedure, or skill for a specific clerkship, even if you already logged it in elsewhere. For example, if you logged in seeing the presentation of "ear pain" during you Family Medicine Clerkship but it is a required clinical presentation in Pediatrics, you must see a patient with ear pain and log it in during pediatrics as well. The Clerkship Directors have coordinated their lists to minimize redundancy.
