Appropriate Treatment of Students
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.
Students have the right to be treated with respect and integrity. Mistreatment and abuse of students by faculty, residents, staff, or fellow students is contrary to the educational objectives of LSUHSC-NO 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, gender identity, sex, sexual orientation, age, religion, or disability; 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.
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, , in the Student Handbook, on the School of Medicine Student Affairs website, and on the LSU CARES webpage.
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, and the issue involves concerns of academic or nonacademic misconduct, or potential mistreatment, including power based violence, possible Title IX violations, bias or discrimination, the allegations will be reported through LSU CARES. Further action will be determined by the nature of the complaint as noted on the LSU CARES website. If the issue involves the learning environment, it should be reported using the Learning Environment form on the Student Affairs website.