IVF Clinic Intermediate Studies

4 units

This course provides students a combination of assigned readings, lectures, and intermediary hands-on IVF laboratory skills practice that is directly supervised by lab personnel (practice of new procedures is limited to discarded or rodent tissue only). Students will be taught additional concepts behind IVF lab design and layout, including policies, procedures, regulations, equipment, and personnel, as well as theory behind culture techniques, anti-sperm antibody testing, embryo selection, and embryo transfer. Throughout this course, students will continue independently performing the procedures learned in semester one, and also, under the direction of a Senior Embryologist, observe and perform embryo selection and embryo transfer. Assessments of procedures are completed via direct observation of procedural skills (DOPS) by the lab director, and knowledge checks will take place regularly via quarterly quizzes and a final exam. Students will be expected to be present in the IVF lab from the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. each day, with the exception of the time they will be in their other classes. Weekly lectures, presented by either the IVF lab director or Reproductive Endocrinology and Infertility clinical faculty will be at least 30 minutes in duration, followed by time for questions and discussion of the assigned readings. There will also be biweekly check-ins with the lab director to discuss laboratory troubleshooting.