Shifts

Role in the Hospital


SCOPE interns and interpreters complete three shifts a month at Santa Clara Valley Emergency Room. Members are trained to be an assistant for the physician on duty, and are driven by the goals of efficiency, and physician and patient satisfaction. Interns and interpreters perform in a variety of ways, including presenting most recent lab reports to doctors upon printout, looking up any number of factors in a patient’s history when requested, checking for chart completion, breaking down charts, printing out discharge instructions, etc. In addition, interns and interpreters are responsible for finding new ways to contribute to ER efficiency beyond what is delineated in the program’s training manuals.

Shift Requirement


SCOPE operates under a quarterly calendar, and members complete around nine shifts per quarter (shifts usually last eight hours, but can be anywhere from six to eleven hours long). All SCOPE members commit to completing a minimum of 27 independent shifts to fulfill their clinical requirement. Interns and interpreters who have successfully completed this shift requirement and would like to remain in SCOPE complete at least two shifts a month. Outlined below are S.C.O.P.E.’s general expectations for an intern or interpreter while on a shift:

  1. Patient Communication and Satisfaction
    • Print up labs for patients
    • Copy EKG printout for patients
    • Get people from waiting room such as family members
    • Place calls to locate family and give attending the phone when they get on the line
    • Call patient for follow-up and give phone to MD when on the line
    • Get an AT&T operator translator on the line and hook up the two-handset translator phone
    • Translate when qualified
    • Bring X-ray to patient at physician’s request
    • Get water / juice / crackers – with physician’s permission
    • Get blankets
    • Get books for children waiting to see physician (after S.C.O.P.E. Reading Program is initiated)
    • Check up on patient symptom control following therapy
      • Chest pain subsiding
      • Nausea/Vomiting
      • Pain control
      • Migraines
  2. Running Errands
    • Look up information in / Retrieve medical textbooks
    • Get prescription pads / stamp prescription pads
    • Get attending dinner, snacks, etc. / food run for staff and attending
    • Look for information online
    • Check for drug interactions at www.drugs.com (go to "drug interactions checker"), or at www.drugfacts.com (go to "Interaction Checker" under "Drug Information")
    • Go to medical records to get old charts
  3. Improve Data Collection
    • Monitor all lab results
    • Look up old EKG’s from medical record
    • Look for drug information online
    • Get patient’s medical information from outside hospitals (help patient and/or family process release of medical information form)
  4. Improve Organization and Efficiency
    • Assist Physician with Dictations (see below – next section)
    • Notify doctor if a specified lab is in (by checking the computer, patient chart, or white board)
    • Look up old lab results from previous ER visits
    • Check for previous visits
    • Get old EKG's / Copy them
    • Check to see what’s been ordered for the patient
    • Write and print aftercare instructions / prescription information
  5. Assist Physician with Dictations
    • Break up patient chart into dictation and discharge piles – staple tan charge sheet onto back of dictation pile
    • Print out labs for doctor and paperclip to back of broken down dictation charts
    • Copy EKG for dictation
    • Place dictated dictation charts into bin

Additional Expectations

  • It is imperative that patient confidentiality not be breached whatsoever, for legal and ethical reasons. S.C.O.P.E. Interns and Interpreters will not, under any circumstance, administer clinical care. This includes any physical contact with patients or their bodily fluids, as well as the distribution of medicine. Mandatory training and assigned reading preceding participation in the program will further cover this and other policies of the program.
  • All S.C.O.P.E. participants will be required to complete a "journal entry" within 24 hours from the end of every shift. This will enable program coordinators to monitor the program’s effectiveness and impact on premedical students as well as to allow interns to provide their input and benefit from personal reflection.
  • All members must answer SCOPE-related emails and phone calls within 24 hours. The program relies on a strong network of communication to insure cohesive operations — this requires that members exercise promptness regarding all correspondence.
  • Click here for an extended overview of our program expectations