Attendance is mandatory during all scheduled duty hours. All leave must be approved by the UGME office (see Leave Requests section). 

Duty Hours

• A clinical block (i.e. rotation) normally starts on a Monday and ends, at the latest, by 1700 hours on the last Friday of the clinical block.
• Attending academic rounds is considered protected time from clinical activities.
• Learners must not be scheduled for duties after 1700 hours if they are taking an examination the following day. This includes on-call and shift duties.
• Learners may request two hours off service each week to attend to personal business.
  • The request must be approved by the clinical block preceptor prior to the student taking the time off service.
• Learners who are eligible to vote in a federal election and whose duty hours do not allow for the three consecutive hours while the polling stations are opened, time off to vote must be prearranged with the preceptor. The same applies to provincial elections where eligible students are entitled to four consecutive hours to vote.

Storms, Snow Days and Emergencies

• Learners who are on regular weekday duty (i.e., not on call or assigned shift work) must not undertake undue risk to report for clinical duty on Memorial University storm or emergency closure days.  
  • Learners on regular weekday duty (i.e., not on call or assigned shift work) are to be excused from weekday duty during Memorial University closures.
  • ​Learners must advise their preceptor, supervising staff or resident of their absence, late arrival or departure due to the official closure.
  • Learners on regular weekday duty who have travelled to the clinical site prior to the announcement of a storm closure may continue with their regular clinical duties for that day if weather conditions make travel home unduly risky. Learners are advised to travel home only when it is deemed safe to do so. Learners must advise their clinical preceptor, supervising staff or resident of their intention to stay on site throughout the closure.
• Learners must report for call and shift duties despite local university closure announcements, only if safe to do so. See the Clerks on Call section for further details.​
• Learner safety is paramount. Learners are advised to use discretion and judgement when weather conditions are so severe as to impact personal safety or make travel unduly risky.
  • Learners must advise their preceptor, supervising staff or resident of their absence or late arrival when weather conditions prevent or delay a learner to report for on call and shift duties.
• ​During States of Emergency, learners are not considered essential workers and must not report for duty.
  • Learners are subject to the state of emergency guidelines for municipalities in which they reside and work.
• ​Learners are required to report for duty (regular, on call or shift) when the Memorial University campus is closed for non-emergent reasons (e.g. power outages) and weather conditions are not severe.   
• Closure announcements for Memorial University are shared via the MUN Safe App. Learners at distributed teaching sites must be guided by official local emergency closure announcements and/or local conditions.  

Breaks and Vacation
For more information regarding holidays, scheduled breaks and vacation regulations refer to the Breaks and Vacation page.