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Trainee Position Description

Gastroenterology Fellowship

  • Position Identification: Fellow
  • Position Summary: Subspecialty trainee (who has successfully completed internal medicine residency) in the field of Gastroenterology and Hepatology.

General Overview of the Resident Role

A fellow’s responsibilities include patient care responsibilities within the scope of their clinical privileges commensurate with level of training and other responsibilities required of all members of the medical staff. Under the supervision of attendings, general responsibilities of the resident may include:

  • Initial and ongoing assessment of patients’ medical, physical, and psychological status
  • Performing history and physical examination
  • Developing assessment and treatment plan
  • Performing rounds
  • Recording documentation, including progress notes, admission notes, procedure notes and discharge summaries
  • Ordering tests, examinations, medications and therapies
  • Arranging for discharge, referral and aftercare.
  • Providing patient education and counseling about health status, test results, disease processes, and transition of care planning.
  • Performing procedures.
  • Teaching and evaluating junior learners, such as residents and medical students.

UW GME Expectations for Professional Behavior

Essential Functions

Defining the trainee's essential functions 

Essential functions are the fundamental job duties of the position that cannot be eliminated or substantially modified without changing the nature of the position.

A fellow must perform the position’s essential job functions with or without approved reasonable accommodation. Reasonable accommodation means modifying or adjusting practices, procedures, policies, job duties, or the work or application environment so that a qualified individual with a disability can still perform a position’s essential functions. Approved reasonable accommodations are determined via an interactive process involving the fellow, DSO/HR/GME, and the program.

Essential functions ensure the safe and smooth delivery of education and patient care and are identified in alignment with program aims to facilitate trainee readiness for independent practice across an appropriate range of clinical settings for that specialty. Transparent documentation of a program’s essential functions is also an important resource for applicants evaluating the training program during recruitment.

Essential Program Administrative Functions

Onboarding

The fellow must:

  • Comply with all program and institutional tasks required for credentialing and onboarding by the requested deadlines.

Program Tasks and Documentation

The fellow must:

  • Participate in all requests for schedule preferences, requests for absence or scheduled changes of requests for clinical coverage on the requested timelines or deadlines.
  • Complete in a timely manner all evaluations requested for medical students, peer residents, faculty, or other members of the team.
  • Complete MedHub clinical and educational hour logs.
  • Complete procedure logs.
  • Complete the Annual ACGME Resident Survey.
  • Complete the program’s annual confidential internal survey.
  • Complete required examination preparation and/or testing requirements, to include in-training examinations and program-specific guidelines for national board certification.
  • Attend all required program meetings, including semiannual meetings, mentorship meetings, program retreats, etc.

Essential Program Core Educational Functions

Didactics

The fellow must:

  • Comply with all standards for attendance at didactics or other core educational activities.
  • Adhere to the preferred mode of attendance (in-person, virtual, or hybrid).

Scholarship

The fellow must:

  • Comply with all program or specialty requirements for research or scholarship, quality improvement, national or regional conference presentation, publication or scholarly writing, or teaching and presentations internal to the program (e.g., journal club, didactics, case conference, M&M, etc.)

Essential Patient Care Functions

Presence and preparedness

The fellow must:

  • Present to work as physically, mentally, and emotionally fit for duty.
  • Arrive at the patient care setting on schedule.
  • Arrive at work in attire appropriate for the professional and safe delivery of patient care.
  • Meet expectations for chart review or pre-rounding.
  • Satisfy expectations that precede sign-out and/or departure for the clinical setting, including an appropriate handoff and follow-up on all patient assessments/data/studies that will alter care in the near term.

Administrative

The fellow must:

  • Complete patient health record documentation on the schedule prescribed by the program or medical center. (Examples include, but are not limited to progress notes/visit summaries, discharge summaries, operative or procedure notes, perioperative records).
  • Comply with expectations for EHR inbox management, including timely responses to messages from patients, medical staff, and tracking and patient follow-up of expected results.

Patient Care Communication

The fellow must:

  • Respond in a timely manner to pages, phone calls, and Epic Secure Chat.
  • Remain within the program-prescribed geographic range while on call or eligible for coverage.

Patient Care Volumes

The fellow must:

  • Work toward (with supervision) or meet benchmarks for patient care volumes in all clinical settings
  • Appropriately request and utilize supervision
  • Work toward or ultimately meet procedure certification standards

Consultation

The fellow must:

  • Appropriately respond to triage and staff consultations in a timely manner.
  • Document findings and recommendations in a timely manner.
  • Communicate with the requesting service directly (e.g., in-person, phone) in advance of and following the assessment.
  • Ensure that consultations are staffed and finalized with a faculty member in a timely manner.

Essential Shift and Schedule Functions

Settings

The fellow must:

  • Complete assigned shifts in settings deemed essential by the program.

Shift Length and Timing

The fellow must:

  • Complete shifts of all lengths deemed essential by the program, which may include daytime, nights, weekends, and holidays.
    • Shifts must not exceed ACGME limits of up to 28 hours per shift, and up to 80 hours per week averaged over a 4-week period.

Call Responsibilities

The fellow must:

  • Complete assigned shifts of home call, as deemed essential by the program.
  • Remain within the prescribed geographic range while on call or eligible for coverage.

Essential Cognitive Functions

  • Data Integration and Synthesis: The ability to gather, analyze, and integrate complex medical information (such as laboratory data, endoscopic results, pathology, and diagnostic imaging) to formulate accurate diagnostic and treatment plans.
  • Clinical Reasoning under Time Constraints: The capacity to exercise sound judgment and make rapid, evidence-based clinical decisions in acute, high-pressure situations (such as managing active gastrointestinal bleeding).
  • Three-Dimensional Spatial Interpretation: The ability to mentally construct and interpret three-dimensional anatomical structures from two-dimensional feeds (e.g. endoscopic and fluoroscopic displays).
  • Precision and Quantitative Calculation: The capacity to accurately calculate clinical scores (e.g., MELD scores for liver transplant candidates), calculate medication dosages, and formulate complex nutritional regimens like Total Parenteral Nutrition (TPN).
  • Critical Inquiry: The ability to critically evaluate scientific literature, engage in educational didactics, and participate in academic research or quality improvement initiatives.

Essential Communication Functions

(including verbal and written)

  • Patient-Centered Communication: The ability to build therapeutic relationships with patients from diverse geographic, cultural, socioeconomic, and linguistic backgrounds.
  • Collaboration in Multidisciplinary Teams: The capacity to present patient information clearly and collaborate effectively in multidisciplinary environments, such as tumor boards and transplant selection committees.
  • Accurate and Respectful Documentation: The ability to complete clear, objective and timely medical records and procedure reports (e.g., within EHR systems). Documentation should utilize non-judgmental, person-first language (e.g., “patient with substance use history” rather than “substance abuser”).
  • Empathic Information Sharing: The ability to share complex medical information (including serious diagnoses or changes in transplant listing status) with patients and families in an empathic and understandable manner.
  • Instruction and Mentorship: The capacity to effectively guide, teach, and assess medical students and internal medicine residents during their clinical rotations.

Essential Physical Functions

(including senses, stances and mobility, manipulation, and technical skills)

  • Fine Motor Coordination: Precise manual dexterity to operate high-tech endoscopic equipment, manipulate dials, advance guidewires, deploy bands/clips, and perform delicate procedures like biopsy, dilation, or paracentesis.
  • Physical Endurance: Stamina to remain stationary for extended periods during long outpatient endoscopy blocks or complex therapeutic procedures while sometimes wearing heavy protective lead aprons.
  • Sensory and Visual Acuity: Assess subtle mucosal changes, vascular patterns, or lesions during high-definition endoscopy, and to interpret real-time fluoroscopic imaging.
  • Tactile Sensitivity: Ability to physically palpate the abdomen during exams and rely on haptic feedback (feel) while navigating the endoscope through the colon to avoid loop formation or perforation.
  • Emergency Responsiveness: The physical capability to respond rapidly to bedside emergencies across multiple hospital wings or intensive care units (e.g., moving quickly across the hospital to set up a travel cart for an emergency airway or severe variceal bleed).

Statement of Nondiscrimination

The University of Washington prohibits discrimination, harassment, and sexual misconduct in any education program or activity that it operates. Individuals may report concerns, make complaints, or direct inquiries to the Civil Rights Compliance Office. View the Statement of Nondiscrimination.

 

This document reflects requirements, established practices, policies, procedures, and resources as of the date of publication; however, parts of this document may be updated from time to time in accordance with changes in the law and applicable requirements, established practices, policies, procedures, and resources. Continued participation by a resident in the program will demonstrate agreement by the resident to adhere to the updates. The program will communicate such changes to enrolled trainees when updated.