Outline of a Workshop for Students:
Expecting Professionalism

Your Goals:

  • To be able to learn and work in a professional environment
  • To be able to take action if someone acts unprofessionally

Some Cases That Have Been Reported

  • The attending yelled at a third-year student in front of others.
  • The resident told a sexual joke and everyone else in the group laughed.
  • A resident said, "Hispanics are all histrionic. She doesn't need any pain meds."
  • A nurse called security when she saw a black student sitting on the floor reading.
  • An attending made a negative comment about gays.
  • A nurse said, "Not another third year student. I hope you at least know how to scrub."
  • An attending asked a medical student to go out with him.
  • The attending hugged a student and patted her.

Your Options:

  1. Accept the harassment, do nothing, and suffer silently. This is usually the worst option.
  2. Talk with the person causing the situation immediately or soon afterwards. Often talking one-on-one results in a better outcome.
  3. Always feel free to contact a member of the Advocacy Committee to talk about the situation and your options.
  4. Discuss the situation with classmates. Check your perceptions of the situation with them. Be supportive when other students who have been harassed or hurt talk with you.
  5. Analyze your self-talk. Decide if it is reasonable to restructure the incident. Was it really "cruel treatment" or "a rough challenge"? Was the person "unprofessional" or "having a bad day"?
  6. Comment on the situation on the evaluation forms on the Medical Education Website, The Listening Post. These evaluations are anonymous. They are read by the Committee, course and clerkship directors, and administrators.
  7. Meet with the person privately later and talk about the situation and your feelings. Use this format in opening the discussion: describe the behavior and state your feelings. For example, "When a teacher yells at me in front of other people, I feel embarrassed and discouraged about learning."
  8. Write the person a letter expressing the same idea in the same way. You have the choice of signing your name or not. Send the person a copy of the Dean's memo on professional behavior.
  9. A few people can think on their feet and respond at the time an incident occurs. One suggestion is to take out a form to write on and say something like, "That is a great example of student abuse (or racism, harassment, gender discrimination, etc.) Can you say it again so I can get it down right? I'm collecting examples for the Student Advocacy Committee (I'm writing an article on life in med school)." Another general strategy is to state that you feel the behavior is unprofessional: "It seems unprofessional to me to ridicule students publicly." Another option is to pretend not to understand: "I'm sorry I don't understand what you mean. Could you explain it." This option is also appropriate when someone tells an offensive joke. Simply "miss the point" and keep asking the joke teller to explain.
  10. Meet with someone in authority who can give feedback to the faculty member and negotiate a solution. You could meet with the course or clerkship director, the Dean of Student Affairs, a member of the Student Advocacy Committee, your advisor, a trusted faculty member, or any other person in authority. Ask the person in authority to agree that no action be taken without your permission.
  11. Make a formal request for action from the appropriate office or authority, e.g., the Office of Equal Opportunity for cases of racial harassment.