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Health Programs Guide to Internships

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This Health Programs Guide to Internships is intended to provide information and assist ISU’s health-related programs with the procedures for Affiliation Agreements and placement of students and residents in clinical internships, rotations, and field experiences. 

Affiliation Agreements

Affiliation Agreements are contracts between an ISU health-related program and external facilities such as hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, schools, and other facilities that allow student interns and residents to gain clinical experience. Each health-related program should designate a program coordinator to be responsible for initiating, submitting, tracking, and storing its Affiliation Agreements. The Office of the General Counsel facilitates the legal review, negotiation, approval, and execution of Affiliation Agreements that are not pre-approved Affiliation Agreement Templates (AATs).

Master Affiliation Agreements may include all or multiple health-related programs at ISU. These are initiated, negotiated, processed, and maintained by the Office of the General Counsel. All currently executed master agreements are available to access by designated program coordinators, faculty, and staff via the Office of the General Counsel’s share folder. Contact Jason Russell (jasonrussell@isu.edu) in the Office of the General Counsel to request access.

All Affiliation Agreements, except ISU templates, should be submitted to the Office of the General Counsel for legal review through the following link. (ISU Affiliation Agreement Templates may be sent directly for ISU signature/execution by the programs because they are pre-approved.) Please allow sufficient time for drafting, review, revision, and execution of the agreement by submitting it well in advance of the anticipated start date of the clinical rotation. The time required for review and approval should be taken into consideration when determining the agreement start date. Please contact Jason Russell at jasonrussell@isu.edu or 208-282-5274 for questions regarding submitting Affiliation Agreements.

SUBMIT AN AFFILIATION AGREEMENT

ISU provides general liability insurance which includes professional and general liability coverage for its faculty, staff, and employees. ISU uses registration fees to purchase professional liability coverage for health-program students, which covers a student's negligent acts or omissions while performing clinical internships and other required program activities.
ISU provides students who are performing required internships coordinated through their program with workers’ compensation benefits. Students are required to have health insurance, at their own cost, when going into Hospitals and Clinics to perform internships.

Background Checks for Students

Under Affiliation Agreements, many clinical facilities such as: hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, schools, etc., require student interns to complete background checks prior to being accepted into internship placements at their facilities. As a result, ISU has obtained several background check vendors who are able to perform these checks for students.

Background checks are a way for ISU and clinical facilities to verify a student’s history and determine whether the student meets the qualifications for clinical internship placements. Students should check with individual programs to determine the specific process to follow. Students are then responsible to go online, obtain the background check, and pay the cost within the timeframes set by the programs.

ISU, its programs, and administrators may access student background checks at any time in order to determine the status of a student's background check, view any derogatory results, download reports, and disclose results and reports to clinical facilities where students may be placed for internships. Background check access and disclosures occur so that ISU, in cooperation with the clinical facilities, may determine whether students qualify for clinical placements.

Health-related programs may use the following form to have students sign and acknowledge that the student consents to release and disclosure of student’s background check results and reports to ISU, administrators, programs, and external clinical facilities. 

Please contact Jason Russell at jasonrussell@isu.edu or 208-282-5274 for questions regarding student background checks.

STUDENT INTERN HIPAA TRAINING:

The University is committed to protecting the confidentiality of protected health information and in complying with Federal and State regulations. The majority of our Affiliation Agreements have requirements for compliance with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPAA) which includes HIPAA training for all ISU student interns, as well as, faculty and staff who participate in clinical internship placements and rotations. Because students have the potential to access outside hospitals, clinics, pharmacies, and other healthcare providers’ protected health information (PHI) related to their patients, students, faculty, and employees are expected to complete all required HIPAA training for their role and compliance with affiliation agreements and clinical placements. Please contact Jason Russell at jasonrussell@isu.edu with any questions regarding Affiliation Agreements and contact Misty Olmsted at mistyolmsted@isu.edu (208)282-4380 with any questions regarding HIPAA or to schedule HIPAA training (see below).

 

Contact Us

ADDRESS                                       PHONE & FAX

Office of General Counsel                        Phone: (208) 282-5274
Administration 321                                     Fax: (208) 282-4821
921 S. 8th Ave., STOP 8410                      Email: jasonrussell@isu.edu
Pocatello, ID 83209-8410