- Scheduling Guide for Nephrology Electives (students/house staff)
The Scheduling Guide for Nephrology Electives provides a checklist of options to create a robust elective at your institution. While this list is not exhaustive, it includes many of the core as well as enrichment experiences to provide trainees with the breadth of what a nephrology career has to offer. The institution may not offer all of these opportunities on-site and may find it logistically challenging to bring the assigned trainees to another location (i.e., a dialysis unit), but self-directed learning experiences, reviewed with an assigned mentor at a later time, may provide appropriate exposure to these facets of nephrology. Depending on the length of the elective experience, it may not be possible to schedule all available activities, so efforts should be made to design the elective to emphasize the strengths of the individual institution or practice.
- Resident Elective - Sample Schedule
This Resident Elective - Sample Schedule provides an example of what a 2-week elective experience may look like, integrating many of the opportunities presented on the Scheduling Guide for Nephrology Electives. Depending on the availability of faculty educators in individual divisions/practices, this schedule may require adjustments based on the dates when rotators are assigned to the elective. However, particular aspects of this schedule should still be considered, including regular meetings with the elective director or assigned mentor and regularly scheduled conferences or fellow curriculum sessions. All faculty involved in integrating the trainee in their clinic or dialysis rounds should be notified well in advance in order to prepare the appropriate learning environment for the clinic (i.e., choosing clinic patients ahead of time). There should be clear expectations set during periods of self-directed learning, with curated content decided in concert with the trainee. If the elective experience is longer than 2 weeks, there will be increased flexibility in including even more experiences from the scheduling guide.
- Private Practice Elective - Sample Schedule
The Private Practice Elective - Sample Schedule provides another example of how non-hospital-based practice might arrange an elective experience for a trainee. These experiences may include more time spent at a nearby dialysis unit or access center, with a more robust exposure to home dialysis modalities. Similar to the academic-based schedule, there should still be dedicated time for self-directed learning, with curated content and an opportunity to review this material with an assigned mentor or elective director.
