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 CPC, 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. Articles can be published in the approved newsletter.

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 first year and third year orientations, at the CPC web site, in the catalogue, on bulletin boards or kiosks around the campus, and in pamphlets available in the Student Affairs Office.

Procedures for Handling Complaints:

Complaints covered by this policy include:

Students' complaints about fellow students, residents and fellows, and faculty

Stage 1: Informal Discussion

For ATM related complaints, the Advocacy Group (AG) will be expanded, when appropriate, to include faculty, house officers and a representative from Human Resource Management, as well as the elected student members. These ad hoc members of the Advocacy Group will be chosen by the standing student members of the Advocacy Group in consultation with the Co-Chairs of the CPC, and when appropriate, with a representative from Human Resource Management. Faculty members appointed to the AG shall be individuals who students feel comfortable with in discussing whether or not abuse has occurred and what should be done about it. The overall composition of the AG shall reflect diversity with regard to gender, ethnicity and race. This ensures an appropriate forum for all participants to feel reasonably comfortable when discussing complaints pertaining to sexual or racial incidents. Complaints should be discussed with the AG within 10 working days of an incident.

The AG has two roles. The first will be to discuss the complaint with the accuser to try to determine whether inappropriate behavior has occurred and, if so, the severity of the mistreatment. The second role will be to try to arbitrate a resolution between the accuser and the accused in cases in which the AG members feel something can be worked out without a formal hearing process. For example, in some instances a formal apology might satisfy both parties.

Stage 2: Formal Procedures

If the expanded AG committee is unable to arbitrate a resolution between the accuser and the accused, the allegations will continue to the CPC as a formal complaint and will proceed in accordance with standard CPC procedure. An ad hoc committee will be formed by the CPC to investigate the allegations. If the ad hoc committee determines that sufficient cause exists to proceed to a formal hearing and the accused is:

• A student, then the CPC 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 CPC will proceed according to the House Officer Manual.
  
  
• A faculty member, the Co-chairs of the CPC will proceed according to the Faculty Handbook of the LSUHSC.
  
  
• A staff member, the Co-chairs of the CPC will proceed according to Human Resource Management.

In any case, it shall be the responsibility of the Co-chairs of the CPC to ensure that the decision of the Panel is conveyed to the appropriate authority as dictated by the Rules of Procedure of the CPC, 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 CPC Appeals Procedure.
  
  
• If the accused person is a staff member, he or she can appeal via Human Resource Management Appeals Procedure.

Revised 11/11/2009 JBD