Medical Dosimetry

Clinical Preceptors

Questions? Please email the program at mdprogram@uwlax.edu for assistance

Welcome Preceptors!

This clinical preceptor website is designed to assist the clinical preceptors (supervisors) with program information. Please contact us if you still have questions.

All documents and information will be updated on this website only. If you have information you would like added or do not see here, please contact us.

Program Officials & Advisory Committee

Clinical Adjunct Faculty Appointments

Current Students Website

Typhon

The UWL Medical Dosimetry program uses a Clinical Management System (CMS) for students enrolled in allied health programs.

Clinical Affective Evaluations

The Clinical Preceptor and/or a clinical instructor will evaluate the student three times per semester via the Typhon system. The person who worked most closely with the student should complete the evaluation. A link to fill out the student's affective evaluation will be sent via email to the designated clinical instructor on the Monday before the evaluation is due on a Friday.

Sample Level I Affective Clinical Evaluation
Sample Level II Affective Clinical Evaluation
2025 Clinical Schedule (use for rotation dates and evaluation due dates)
2026 Clinical Schedule(use for rotation dates and evaluation due dates)

Competencies

There are a specific number of competencies needed each semester. 23 competencies are needed in order to graduate. The competency evaluation forms must be completed by clinical staff via the Typhon system.

Note: complete all competency forms whether the student passes or fails.

Clinical Competency Requirements & Evaluations Policies

Master Competency Checklist

Sample Competency Evaluations:

Remote Clinical Education Policy

According to the JRCERT, Remote Clinical Education is defined as a separation between the student and instructor. Any request for remote clinical education must be approved by the clinical coordinator and clinical preceptor in accordance with the policy. This is an optional learning environment and is not required for students. Refer to the Remote Clinical Education Policy in the student handbook.

only permitted for full-time students during the last semester of clinical internship
only up to 2 days per week will be permitted
student must meet hybrid/remote learning pre-requisites (p. 2 of policy)
student cannot be on academic probation
students must have access to a planning system remotely
not to be used for normal illness, childcare, pregnancy, travel issues, moving, etc.

MR Safety Policy

Please read the MRI Safety Policy in the student handbook. The safety screening protocol that will be completed by the student before clinical internship.

Too Sick for Clinical Internship

Interns are required to follow Too Sick for Clinical Internship requirements. If an intern presents with conditions, such as the examples listed, it is the clinical preceptor’s discretion to send the intern home or accept the intern into the clinical setting. The intern will be required to use PTO time for his/her absence. The return-to-internship protocol and other illness-related situations must follow the hospital (clinical facility) policies.

Note: if an intern is on narcotic prescription drugs, the intern will not be permitted to participate in clinical activities due to the potential side effects and altered mental status.

Too Sick for Clinical Internship Policy

Time Logs/Clinical & Didactic Hours

Students are required to log their hours (both clinical and didactic) within the Typhon system. The timecard hours will be reviewed and approved routinely by the designated Clinical Instructor. The student is responsible for keeping time cards up to date daily.

Students are advised to establish the clinical/didactic hourly schedule with the preceptor and submit this schedule in the Clinical Internship I course for the clinical coordinator's approval.

Semester Schedules/Time Off (click on the schedules tab)

Procedure/Case Logs

Within Typhon, students log the procedures observed, assisted, or performed during clinical internship. There are blank procedure/case log forms (within Typhon) they can use to track procedures throughout the day but they should be entering everything into Typhon daily.

Note: these logs demonstrate the number of times they've observed, assisted, or performed. It should reflect their preparedness prior to completing a competency.

Blank Case/Procedure Log Worksheet

Typhon Procedures-Skills List

Clinical Orientation

The Clinical Preceptor (Supervisor) at the internship site is responsible for orientation of the student based on the facility’s policies.

The Tentative Clinical Schedules below represent the minimum requirements during clinical internship. It should be used as a guide. Please contact the clinical coordinator if you have questions or concerns.

Clinical Schedule - Full-Time Schedule

Tentative Clinical Schedule - Part-Time Schedule

Things that should be reviewed during orientation include:

Safety: orientate the student to safety procedures. This orientation should include:

Fire Safety
Location of safety equipment
Instruction in safety procedures
Radiation Safety
Personal health and hygiene

Students are required to adhere to all safety regulations and procedures. Failure to adhere to these regulations and procedures may result in dismissal from the UWL Medical Dosimetry Program.

The safety form should be signed and given to the student to place into the Clinical Practicum I course. This should be completed within two weeks of starting Clinical Internship Training. A copy of this form should also be kept in the students' file within the clinic department.

Students are to be given orientation to the block room as well as orientation for the fabrication of beam modifiers and immobilization devices (or whatever is applicable to the facility). The student must participate in the fabrication of these devices/process involved under the direct supervision of qualified practitioners. All safety guidelines should be reviewed as well. Once the student has participated in these tasks and has achieved competency, they are able to perform these duties under indirect supervision of qualified practitioners.

Radiation Safety

All students shall practice appropriate radiation safety procedures in protecting themselves, their patients, and other personnel from unnecessary exposure. Radiation protection practices are reviewed at the beginning of the students’ clinical internship training, in the Radiation Safety, Physics and Radiobiology course. A copy of the radiation safety standards for students is located in the student handbook.

The student(s) must be monitored with a radiation badge monitoring device provided by the facility during orientation. The clinical preceptor (supervisor) will review the radiation dosimeter reports with the student. The student will sign off that they have reviewed this report with the clinical preceptor (supervisor) and/or radiation safety officer. A copy of the cumulative radiation dosimeter report must be sent to the educational coordinator at the end of the clinical year. NOTE: The student will not graduate until we have received this report.

Student Supervision

The medical dosimetry student must be supervised by a qualified practitioner (e.g. certified medical dosimetrist, credentialed medical physicist, licensed radiation oncologist) during all procedures that have direct patient contact.

All clinical procedures/tasks (e.g. dose calculations, treatment plans, etc.) performed by the students must be approved by a qualified practitioners prior to implementation.

The program requires the clinical preceptor and clinical instructors to review the program and student supervision policies with the student during the orientation period and all individuals (preceptor, clinical instructors and student) must sign to acknowledge the program and student supervision policy.

The student is responsible for submitting this signed document to the DOS 771 Clinical Internship I course.

Dress Code

Dress and appearance standards depend upon the policies at the clinical internship sites and will be shared with students during their clinical internship site orientation. A student who does not comply with these standards may be sent home to change. During the absence, he/she will have to use personal time. If further incidents occur, harsher disciplinary action will take place. Further information is available in the student handbook.

Documentation

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) of 1974 is a Federal law that protects the privacy of student education records.

As a reminder, please keep any student-related paperwork in a locked filing cabinet within the department. If kept in an office of the preceptor, please make sure this office is locked when not present and only accessible by the preceptor.

Student-related paperwork could include radiation badge reports, orientation forms, documentation of meetings you've had with the student, etc.; however, any paperwork directly related to the student and has identifiable information should be protected.

Refer to the UWL FERPA policy for more information.

Evaluations Completed by Students

Clinical Instructors

Students will evaluate the clinical staff at the end of every semester via the Typhon System. This feedback and any suggestions are made available to the evaluated Instructor evaluated in the Typhon system. The student may evaluate more than one instructor in a semester.

Course evaluations

Course Evaluations - students evaluate the course/instructor at the end of every didactic course through CANVAS (online course management system). This feedback is used to make improvements or changes to the course at the next offering.

Admissions

It is important for all clinical internship sites to know they are part of the UW-L admissions process. Because you are affiliated with our program, you must follow UWL admissions policies. Therefore, we need you to be aware of the process. Decisions you make don't impact only your site, they impact applicants, the University, and our program.

An example of a timeline for admissions is as follows: (download PDF)

September	Early September (after Labor Day): applications open Before late September: those applicants seeking a NEW affiliation agreement must apply before September 30.
October/November	Anne Marie will send out an email to all internship sites asking if they intend to participate in the upcoming admissions cycle.
January	Early January: application deadline Late January: Program Officials review applications for selection of those eligible to interview (Phase I). Anne Marie will notify internship sites of the timeline for applicants to schedule interviews with their site.
Late January / Early February	Pete will notify the eligible applicants to schedule interviews. Eligible applicants are given the list of clinical sites with the contact information. Sites must contact Pete prior to an interview to obtain the application materials from a secured folder for each interviewee.¹ Scheduling of interviews will take place over a 5-day window. This ensures the internship sites can efficiently schedule after all applicants have contacted them and sites have selected specific dates/times when their committee is available.
February	Interviews will take place during the month of February – IN PERSON (Phase II).² A deadline for final interview completion will be conveyed to applicants and internship sites.
Early March	Program officials will receive all rankings from applicants and internship sites, complete the matches, and notify sites/students. Final decisions will be communicated to internship sites first and then followed with letters to the applicants thereafter.³
We will use a secured system to exchange admissions documents with the internship sites. This means the preceptor will be invited to the secured storage location to collect and/or send the following documents: List of applicants & applications for those interviewing at your site; Final individual ranking documents and comprehensive ranking spreadsheet for the site. Due to the nature of our distant learning program, students may choose to interview at various locations throughout the U.S. The month of February is designated for interviewing as some interviewees will need to make travel arrangements. Do not communicate with applicants specifically about acceptance and/or rejection. Direct those requests to Pete in admissions. Why? Because we have feedback from ALL SITES about how an applicant did during interviews. We also have program officials notes about the strength/weakness of their application as well as comments and rankings from ALL SITES. Therefore, if someone was rejected, we are the ones who need to provide a comprehensive summary on what they can do to improve their application next admissions cycle. This is why it is so important to include notes on the interview rankings or final summary for program officials. Do not include notes such as ‘does not have a RTT background’ as we accept both types of students and there should no bias during interviews. If you don’t feel they know enough about medical dosimetry, simply state that and provide a suggestion on how they could improve next admissions cycle.

Pre-Clinical

The program requires documentation of various items prior to clinical internship training in January. The student will use a checklist form to ensure all pre-clinical requirements are complete. The students are also required to complete the following forms during the acceptance process and are uploaded to the student file in the clinical management system.

Schedules

The curriculum course schedule (per semester) can be found simply by clicking on the 'curriculum' navigation menu to the left on our program website. However, if you would like to know the start and end dates of semesters, when students have break, and when each class starts and ends, see the schedules posted on the current students website. Generally the schedules are posted at least a year ahead of time. The holidays are also listed on the website.

Clinical Site Visits

Anne Marie will perform clinical internship site visits each year typically during the first semester. Typically these visits are scheduled starting in mid-February through May. An email will be sent to preceptors about how to schedule the site visits annually. Prior to the visit, Anne Marie will send an agenda so the preceptor and student know what will be discussed. During the site visit, Anne Marie will request a tour, meet the physics/dosimetry staff, and then meet with the clinical preceptor and student(s) individually.

Policies & Procedures

The program policies are contained within the program handbook. Any updates to the handbook during the cohort year will be posted here.

Miscellaneous Forms

Incident Form - this form covers incidences such as falls, damage to property, etc.
Missed Time Form - use this form to report late arrivals, early departures, or missed clinical time. Please submit this to the Educational Coordinator as needed.
Tardy Form - use this form whenever your student shows up tardy. Please submit this to the Educational Coordinator as needed.

Student Liability Insurance Policy

The UW-La Crosse medical dosimetry program purchases liability insurance every August (blanket policy) for student coverage during the clinical internship. The policy is a cyclical policy covering the number of students in each cohort. There are some unique circumstances for a few internship sites where difference policies must be purchased individually. The student liability insurance policy can be found in the clinical management system within the school documents section in program resources. If you have difficulty finding this policy, please reach out to Anne Marie.