Site Advisor Responsibilities

To the extent feasible and appropriate, site advisors will: 

  • Provide an overview of the public health program/setting of the field training site (could include, for example, an organization chart; program goals, objectives, and activities; methods of surveillance; target population; copies of routine reports; and copies of ongoing research studies)
  • Explain work rules and procedures, make available resources, assist in establishing access to the various data systems that might be used by the student
  • Regularly meet with the student to provide teaching, constructive feedback and other guidance
  • Introduce student to colleagues and agency executives when possible
  • Arrange for attendance at a formal orientation if available
  • Include student in both agency and outside meetings
  • Allow student to shadow advisor
  • Provide a list of pertinent readings
  • If required, establish a funding mechanism for travel and other expenses
  • If required, provide secretarial support

For more information about site advisor responsibilities, review the Guide for Sites and Mentors.

Meetings and Documentation

A site advisor will meet with his/her student and the faculty advisor after confirming the field training arrangement and then as needed throughout the field training.

For documentation, the student will submit the following to a site advisor through the digital field training forms system:

  • Time record forms for site advisor to sign (on a daily basis)
  • Form 1, Confirmation of Field Training
  • Form 2, Early Review of Field Training
  • Form 3, Field Site Mentor’s Evaluation of the Field Training
  • Time Record Form
  • Field Training Report

Protected Health Information and Confidentiality
Throughout students’ field training, and especially when completing forms and reports, they need to be mindful of the confidential information—including patients’ personal health information (PHI)—that they have access to at field training sites. A site advisor should remind students that whenever they discuss or document field training, they need to ‘de-identify’ or remove all elements that could be used to identify an individual.