Throughout medical school, medical students learn in a variety of environments such as classrooms, small groups, clinical skills workshops, clinical simulation centers, hospitals, and clinics. Medical students also encounter a wide variant of teachers including preclinical and clinical faculty, community preceptors, residents, fellows, nursing staff, and fellow classmates. All learning environments should be physically and psychologically safe and should promote a student’s learning. It is imperative that all interactions and assessments of learners, regardless of the environment, be fair, impartial, objective, and unbiased. Should a learner encounter a situation that does not meet these criteria, they have access to recourse without fear of retaliation.
Among the four missions of the CUSOM is the education of future physicians. Our students have gone through a rigorous selection process and represent a group of highly skilled and academically well-prepared students. The CUSOM holds in high regard professional
conduct and behaviors and attitudes, including altruism, integrity, respect for others and a commitment to excellence. All members of the medical school community, including students, faculty, residents, fellows, staff, and administrators are held
to high standards in these areas.
Effective learning is best fostered in an environment of mutual respect between teachers and learners. In the context of medical education, the term “teacher” is used broadly to include peers, resident physicians, full-time and volunteer faculty
members, clinical preceptors, nurses and ancillary support staff, as well as others from whom students learn. Students and teachers share the challenge of learning and teaching not only the art and science of medicine, but also the acquisition of
behaviors and values that characterize the ideal physician.
This Agreement serves both as a pledge and a reminder to teachers and students that their conduct in fulfilling their mutual obligations is the medium through which the profession perpetuates its ethical values. Failure to uphold the principles of the teacher learner agreement may result in referral to the Office for Faculty Relations (Faculty), the Student Professionalism Committee or the Student Promotions Committee (Students).
Duty: Medical educators have a duty not only to convey the knowledge and skills required for delivering the profession's standard of care but also to model the values and attitudes required for preserving the medical profession’s social contract with its patients.
Integrity: Learning environments that are conducive to conveying professional values must be based on integrity. Students and residents learn professionalism by observing and emulating role models who epitomize authentic professional values, attitudes and, especially, behaviors.
Respect: Respect for every individual is fundamental to the ethics of medicine. Mutual respect between students, as novice members of the profession, and their teachers, as experienced and esteemed professionals, is essential for nurturing that ethic. Given the inherently hierarchical nature of the teacher-learner relationship, teachers have a special obligation to ensure that students and residents are always treated respectfully.
Teachers Must:Duty
Integrity
Respect
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Students Must:Duty
Integrity
Respect
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1.1.3 Relationships between Students and Teachers
Students and teachers should recognize the special nature of the teacher-learner relationship, which is, in part, defined by professional role modeling, mentorship and supervision. There is a power differential, as expressed by the fact that teachers often evaluate student performance, and the results of their evaluations may affect the student's future. Conversely, students evaluate the quality of their teachers, and this can affect the teacher’s career.
Because of the special nature of this relationship, students and teachers should strive to develop a relationship that is characterized by mutual trust, acceptance, and confidence. They both have an obligation to respect and maintain appropriate boundaries. Students and teachers must avoid any and all behaviors that conceivably could lead to the perception of a boundaries violation; avoiding boundary violations is crucial to a proper teacher-student relationship. There are similar boundaries between students and patients that exist because of the nature of this special and trusting relationship. Boundary violations or actions that may give the appearance of a boundary violation should routinely be avoided. A partial list includes:Health providers who provide health services, including psychiatric/psychological counseling, to a medical student or their primary family members will not be involved in the academic assessment or promotion of the medical student receiving those services. When students or their primary family members choose their health care providers from physicians who are on the faculty, they have the potential to be in a conflict-of-interest situation, where their provider is also evaluating their academic or clinical performance. Faculty members are not allowed to complete an evaluation for any students for whom they provide or have provided medical care, including their primary family members. Conflicts arise between a faculty’s role as the student's physician and their role as an evaluator of the student's performance. Faculty must notify students as soon as they recognize the conflict. Students likewise must notify a faculty member if they are assigned to a physician for evaluation who is providing or has provided medical care for them or their primary family members in the past. The student must also notify the course director who will find an alternative clinical site or provide an alternative faculty member for evaluation. Students may consult the Office of Student Life for a list of physicians who do not teach students. See Educational Conflict of Interest Policy.
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