Professional Conduct
>POLICY STATEMENT
Appropriate Treatment in Medicine: Conflict Resolution and Appeals Procedure
Introduction
The Louisiana State University School of Medicine in New Orleans is dedicated to providing its students, residents, faculty, staff, and patients with an environment of respect, dignity, and support. The diverse backgrounds, personalities, and learning needs of individual students must be considered at all times in order to foster appropriate and effective teacher-learner relationships. Honesty, fairness, evenhanded treatment, and respect for students' feelings are the foundation of establishing an effective learning environment.
Mistreatment and abuse of medical students by faculty, residents, staff, or fellow students are antithetical to the educational objectives of the LSU School of Medicine in New Orleans and will not be tolerated. Mistreatment and abuse include, but are not limited to, berating, belittling, or humiliation; physical punishment or threats; intimidation; sexual harassment; harassment or discrimination based on race, gender, sexual preference, age, religion, physical or learning disabilities; assigning a grade for reasons other than the student's performance; assigning tasks for punishment or non-educational purposes; requiring the performance of personal services; or failing to give students credit for work they have done.
Complaints based wholly or in part on allegations of sexual harassment, or racial, ethnic, gender, sexual preference, age, disability, or religious discrimination, will be investigated by Human Resource Management, as well as by the Council on Student Professional Conduct (CSPC), as mandated by Federal laws.
Promulgation of Policies to Prevent Mistreatment of Medical Students:
The importance of professionalism, role modeling, and appropriate instructional techniques will be promulgated by faculty development activities for new faculty, and discussions at Administrative Council, Faculty Assembly Delegates Meetings, Faculty Assembly/ General Faculty Meetings, and meetings of Course Directors.
Residents and Staff will receive instruction at their orientation and in their departments on avoidance of mistreatment and abuse of others and how to proceed if they themselves feel that they have been treated unprofessionally.
Students will be informed about how to deal with incidents that they feel are or may be abusive at their orientations, at the Council on Student Professional Conduct web site, in the catalogue, and on Student Affairs Office Website.
Procedures for Handling Complaints:
Complaints covered by this policy include:
Students' complaints about fellow students, residents and fellows, and faculty
Stage 1: Informal Discussion
Students are encouraged to bring issues of concern to the ombuds person, faculty, course directors, site directors, clerkship directors, and the Office of Student Affairs depending on the location, type, and involved parties in the issue (for example, if it is a basic science course or a clinical science clerkship or site issue). All attempts will made to investigate and resolve the issue if possible. If the behavior is egregious, or the student is not satisfied with informal discussion, the issue will move to formal procedures.
Stage 2: Formal Procedures
If informal discussion is unable to arbitrate a resolution between the accuser and the accused, the allegations will continue to the Council on Student Professional Conduct as a formal complaint and will proceed in accordance with standard CSPC procedure. If sufficient cause exists to proceed to a formal hearing and the accused is:
- A student, then the CSPC Formal Hearing Panel will determine if mistreatment has occurred and recommend a course of action to the Dean of the School of Medicine.
- A resident, the Co-chairs of the CSPC will proceed according to the House Officer Manual.
- A faculty member, the Co-chairs of the CSPC will proceed according to the Faculty Handbook of the LSUHSC.
- A staff member, the Co-chairs of the CSPC will proceed according to Human Resource Management.
In any case, it shall be the responsibility of the Co-chairs of the CSPC to ensure that the decision of the Panel is conveyed to the appropriate authority as dictated by the Rules of Procedure of the CSPC, the House Officer's Code, the Faculty Handbook and Human Resource Management.
Stage 3: Appeal Procedures
If the person accused of mistreatment or unprofessional conduct finds the outcome of the formal procedures or the Dean's decision to be unacceptable, he or she can appeal as follows:
- If the accused person is a member of the faculty, he or she can appeal via the Health Sciences Center Faculty Appeals Procedure
- If the accused person is a resident, he or she can appeal via the House Officer ManualAppeals Procedure.
- If the accused person is a fellow student, he or she can appeal via the CSPC Appeals Procedure.
- If the accused person is a staff member, he or she can appeal via Human Resource Management Appeals Procedure.
Revised 01/27/2017 CJL