Division of Student Success
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University of Nebraska Medical Center

Clinical Accommodation Plan Information

The clinical accommodations interactive process begins with the student and involves the program director/clinical coordinator, the clinical site/faculty educator, and the Accessibility Services Center.

Clinical accommodation plans are developed for a specific clinical experience to focus on the nature of the clinical setting and ensure a student’s needs are met at a particular site. Clinical accommodations are typically shorter in duration (ranging from a few weeks to semester in length) compared to classroom-based accommodations (duration of the program). Additionally, clinical accommodations can change frequently as they are unique to the student and sometimes the clinical setting in which they are applied.

Required Parties for Clinical Accommodations

  • Student
  • Program Director/Clinical Coordinator
  • Accessibility Services Center (ASC)
  • Clinical Site/Faculty Educator

ASC's Clinical Plan Workflow

  1. Student is responsible for requesting accommodations.
  2. Student, ASC, and program faculty have interactive discussions regarding requested accommodations for the clinical setting.
  3. Draft/development of plan occurs, and student signs the plan via DocuSign.
  4. Introduction email is sent informing site of student with accommodation plan.
  5. Plan sent via DocuSign for the site coordinator/faculty educator to review and sign.
  6. If needed, a Zoom meeting between all required parties can occur to discuss further. 

Frequently Asked Questions

Why are clinical plans necessary?

It is common that students may have not encountered barriers in the didactic portion of the program and start experiencing unanticipated barriers in the clinical setting. Additionally, there are more individuals with disabilities applying and registering for health professions training than ever before.

What if the student is only attending a clinical experience that is one day or is unaware of the instructor until the day of the clinical shift?

Best practice is to be aware of the clinical instructor as early as possible to ensure that the clinical instructor can meet the student's accommodation needs. If that is not possible, we will need to work with individuals at the site to ensure appropriate measures are in place for the student upon arrival—this may mean meeting with the pertinent program lead over the clinic department, the clinical coordinator at the site, etc. The lead or other appropriate representative of the clinical site responsible for clinical staff leading the student will need to review and sign the accommodation plan for the student.

Why do clinical accommodation plans need to be signed?

We are not solely responsible for the environment in which the student is learning like we are in the traditional classroom. We share responsibility in the clinical environment for the learner experience with the partnering clinical agency and their personnel. We want to be certain that all individuals with responsibility for the learner experience in the clinical environment are aware of and agree to the obligations to accommodate the student appropriately. Therefore, awareness and agreement are acknowledged through the form of a signature.