Standards of conduct in the teacher-learner relationship and abuses of this relationship

A Climate of Mutual Respect

The OSU College of Medicine has as a core value the provision of a climate of mutual respect in the teaching and learning environment. It is committed to promoting a mistreatment-free environment for all students, staff, volunteers, and physicians. The College maintains its commitment to prevent student mistreatment through education, by providing support for victims, and by responding with corrective action. In this way, the College assures an educational environment in which students, staff, volunteers, and physicians may raise and resolve issues without fear of intimidation or retaliation. The College is committed to investigating all cases of mistreatment in a prompt, sensitive, confidential, and objective manner.

Mistreatment may be defined as “treatment of a person that is either emotionally or physically damaging; is from someone with power over the recipient of the damage; is not required or not desirable for proper training; could be reasonably expected to cause damage; and may be ongoing.” This includes verbal (swearing, humiliation), emotional (neglect, a hostile environment), sexual (physical or verbal advances, discomforting humor), and physical harassment or assault (threats, harm). To determine if something is mistreatment, one should consider if the activity or action is damaging, unnecessary, undesirable, ongoing, or could reasonably be expected to cause damage.

The following are examples only and are not meant to be inclusive of all types of mistreatment. Furthermore, these examples may not always constitute mistreatment given a specific situation. For example, while “unwanted sexual advances” are clearly an example of sexual harassment, “being stared at” does not always constitute sexual harassment.

Verbal

  • Yelling or shouting at a student
  • Humiliation or putdown (e.g., disparaging remarks about being in medicine)
  • Racial, ethnic, gender identity, or sexual orientation discrimination (e.g. slurs, jokes, prejudiced remarks)
  • Non-constructive criticism
  • Threatening to hit or to cause harm to others

Emotional

  • Being assigned work duties for the purpose of punishment rather than education
  • Having others take credit for your work (e.g., papers, projects, clinical work, or research)
  • Creation of a hostile environment
  • Exclusion from formal or informal learning settings
  • Threats to one’s academic standing (e.g., threatening to fail, to lower grades, or to give a poor evaluation)
  • Being requested to perform personal duties for supervisors (Examples: getting refreshments such as coffee or picking up cleaning)

Sexual

  • Being stared at or leered at
  • Unwelcome sexual comments, jokes, innuendoes, or taunting remarks about one’s body, attire, age, gender, sexual orientation, or marital status
  • Malicious gossip pertaining to sexual habits
  • Display of pornographic, sexually offensive, or degrading pictures
  • Unwanted sexual advances, including unnecessary physical contact by touching, pinching, or patting
  • Nonconsensual sexual intimacy with or without actual intercourse
  • For more detailed information regarding sexual misconduct/harassment, see section 15.

Physical

  • Being pushed, shoved, shaken, or tripped
  • Being slapped, hit, punched, or kicked
  • Assault with a weapon (e.g., needle or surgical instrument)
  • Aggressive violation of one’s personal space (e.g. “getting in one’s face”)

Mistreatment is to treat in a harmful, injurious, or offensive way; to attack in words; to speak insultingly, harshly, and unjustly to or about a person; and to revile by name calling or speaking unkindly to an individual in a contentious manner. Mistreatment is further defined to be particularly unnecessary or avoidable acts or words of a negative nature inflicted by one person on another person or persons.

Harassment is verbal or physical conduct that creates an intimidating and/or hostile work or learning environment in which submission to such conduct is a condition of one’s professional training.

Discrimination is a behavior, action, interaction, and/or policy that adversely affect one’s work because of disparate treatment, disparate impact, or the creation of a hostile or intimidating work or learning environment.

Mechanism for prompt handling of complaints

Student-to-Student Mistreatment

Monitoring for Patterns of Mistreatment or Unhealthy Learning Environments

Mechanisms for Resolution of Reports of Student Mistreatment

Whenever an incident of mistreatment is reported, the College shall attempt to resolve the issue in a rapid and efficient manner, thereby maintaining a healthy teaching and learning environment. Depending on the incident, a variety of pathways to resolution may be chosen. The majority of the complaints against faculty or residents can be dealt with on a departmental basis, with feedback to the faculty member or resident from the clerkship director or department chair. More complex issues involving hospital personnel, community hospitals, or non-faculty mistreatment incidents may require interaction with departmental or divisional education committees, hospital educational offices, hospital ethics committees, directors of nursing, hospital administrators, or section/division heads.

The Associate Dean for Student Life will monitor the resolution of these incidents to assure that appropriate procedures are followed at all times and, where necessary, refer them to the appropriate University offices and resources.

Educational methods aimed at preventing student mistreatment

Ohio State University whistleblower policy - Policy 1.40

The Ohio State University encourages all faculty, staff, students and volunteers, acting in good faith, to report suspected or actual wrongful conduct. The university is committed to protecting individuals from interference with making a protected disclosure and from retaliation for having made a protected disclosure or for having refused an illegal order as defined in this policy. University faculty, staff, students, or volunteers may not retaliate against an individual who has made a protected disclosure or who has refused to obey an illegal order.

University faculty, staff, students, or volunteers may not directly or indirectly use or attempt to use the official authority or influence of their positions or offices for the purpose of interfering with the right of an individual to make a protected disclosure to the individual’s immediate supervisor or other appropriate administrator or supervisor within the operating unit, or other appropriate university official about matters within the scope of this policy. It is the intention of the university to take whatever action may be needed to prevent and correct activities that violate this policy.

Reporting Violations

Additional avenues for reporting concerns include:

  • Academic misconduct matters–Office of Academic Affairs, 614-292-5881
  • Athletics matters–Department of Athletics, Compliance, 614-292-2681
  • Criminal matters–University Police, 614-292-2121, or local law enforcement at regional campuses
  • Employment matters–Office of Human Resources, Employee and Labor Relations, 614- 292-2800
  • Financial matters–Office of Business and Finance, Internal Audit, 614-292-9680
  • Legal matters–Office of Legal Affairs, 614-292-0611
  • Medical Center healthcare matters, OSUMC Compliance Office, 614-293-2781
  • Research related concerns – Students may report research related concerns including mistreatment by a research mentor or staff, neglect by mentor, unethical research practices, noncompliance or disputes about attribution and authorship to Dr. Ginny Bumgardner, associate dean of medical student research education (Ginny.Bumgardner@osumc.edu). Other avenues for reporting include the Office of Research, Responsible Research Practices, 614-688-8457 or through the OSU EthicsPoint anonymous reporting line.
  • Student matters–All matters involving students, in the non-student-employment setting, not covered by the offices listed above–Office of Student Life, Student Conduct, 614-292-0748
  • All other matters–Office of Human Resources, Employee and Labor Relations, 614-292- 2800

Existing applicable national, professional, university, and college policies and offices

  • American Medical Association Section on Medical Schools/AMA Student and Residency Sections.
  • Office of Student Life of The Ohio State University written policy on the climate of mutual respect in the workplace.
  • The OSU Student Advocacy Center is available by calling 614-292-1111; going to 1120 Lincoln Tower, 1800 Cannon Drive; or by sending an e-mail to advocacy@osu.edu.
  • The College of Medicine counselor is available by calling 614-292-3340 or by coming to 138A Meiling Hall (370 W. 9th Avenue). A policy of privacy and confidentiality is maintained.