Reporting

There are two levels of reporting on student behavior: a Physicianship Incident Report (referred to as a "PIR") and a Physicianship Evaluation Form (referred to as a "PEF"). A PIR can be generated anytime a student's behavior raises concerns regarding the medical student's professional and ethical conduct. If the situation raises major concerns about a medical student's character and professionalism, a PEF should be completed. PIRs and PEFs are submitted to the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs who will follow up as described below. PIRs and PEFs can be generated by anyone, including but not limited to, course coordinators, the College of Medicine administration, faculty, staff and other students. All PIR's and PEFs must be submitted via the College of Medicine's Office of Student Affairs' secure web-based Physicianship Incident Reporting System (referred to as "PIRS"). These incident reports must include the name of the student, the name of the concerned observer, the date of the incident being reported, the location of the incident, and a narrative description of the student's behavior. Anyone submitting a PIR or a PEF may also provide suggestions for corrective actions. All physicianship incidents will be entered into the incident report database (referred to as the "Database"). The Database will be used: 1) to generate quarterly reports, without student names, of the types of professionalism issues that have arisen that will be distributed to all students and faculty; 2) to generate a report, with student names, to be reviewed by the MSPPSC; and 3) to keep the Associate Dean for Medical Education and Faculty Development and the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs fully informed about students who are experiencing difficulties. The Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs will monitor the PIRS, will investigate reported PIRs and PEFs, and will contact each student who has a physicianship incident reported. Such student will be asked to respond to the concerns, and this response will be appended to the incident report.

Students may be the subject of disciplinary actions taken because of professional concerns. Any misconduct that is addressed under University Regulations 4.001 or 4.007 will be governed by the procedures described in such Regulations. Disciplinary actions resulting from deficiencies in professional behavior may be initiated by a course coordinator, the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs, the Associate Dean for Medical Education and Faculty Development, or the MSPPSC.

Students may appeal any individual PIR, PEF or Institutional Physicianship Evaluation or any resulting sanctions imposed by the MSPPSC by submitting an appeal in writing to the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs or designee within five (5) business days of receiving notice of the decision from the MSPPSC. The first step to be taken by the student in the appeal is to appear before the MSPPSC or to inform it in writing of evidence or mitigating facts which might persuade the MSPPSC to rescind or alter its decision. Such a request for reconsideration, however, reopens the case and may lead to a new decision by the MSPPSC. The MSPPSC will conduct a hearing to review the appeal and will notify the student of its decision within five (5) business days of the hearing. If the student remains dissatisfied with the outcome of the MSPPSC hearing, the student may submit an appeal in writing to the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs or designee within five (5) business days of receiving notice of the final decision by the MSPPSC. The student must provide a justification for the appeal, which basis will be limited to the following: 1) failure to receive the minimum requirements of process, as described in this Handbook; 2) severity of the penalty; or 3) new material or information that could not be discovered at the time of the MSPPSC hearing. This appeal will go to the EAPC. The EAPC will conduct a hearing in order to determine whether the decision was made in a manner consistent with the requirements and standards of the Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine, the rights and obligations of the student, and the rights and obligations of the faculty. The EAPC may accept, reject or modify the decision of the MSPPSC. The EAPC will notify the student of its decision within five (5) business days of the hearing. If unsatisfied with the outcome of the EAPC hearing, the student may appeal the decision by the EAPC by submitting an appeal in writing to the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs or designee within five (5) days of receiving notice of the EAPC decision. The student must provide a justification for the appeal, which basis will be limited to the following: 1) failure to receive the minimum requirements of process, as described in this Handbook; 2) severity of the penalty; or 3) new material or information that could not be discovered at the time of the EAPC hearing. This appeal will go to the Dean of the College of Medicine. The decision of the Dean of the College of Medicine is final. The student has a right to appeal the Dean's final decision to an external judicial forum.

This paragraph describes the procedures for all appeal hearings described above. The primary purpose of the appeal hearing is to ascertain whether the penalty under appeal was imposed in a manner consistent with the requirements and standards of the Florida Atlantic University College of Medicine, the rights and obligations of the student, and the rights and obligations of the faculty. All hearings are closed to the public and the press. The appeal hearing is not adversarial in nature, and the formal rules of evidence do not apply. The student and all other interested parties will be invited to attend and participate in the hearings. The student may choose to have an advisor present. The advisor may consult with the student but may not participate in the hearing directly unless given permission to do so by those conducting the hearing. If the student's advisor is an attorney, the University will have an attorney present as well. Either party to the appeal may call witnesses. Summary minutes of the appeal and relevant attachments shall be provided to either party upon request..

Professionalism is a core competency for all medical students and is fundamental to the practice of medicine. Students are expected to demonstrate adequate professional and personal attributes both within and outside the boundaries of a course or clerkship. If inadequate professional behaviors are noted outside of course work or clinical experiences, students will be subject to receiving a PEF from the central educational administration. Concerns will be summarized and the form will be completed by the Senior Associate Dean for Medical Education and Faculty Development or the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs, rather than course or clerkship directors. Therefore, this category of physicianship evaluation is called "Institutional Physicianship Evaluation." The evaluation describes areas in which improvement in professional performance is needed, and is parallel to and includes the standard physicianship evaluation criteria: ability to meet professional responsibilities; ability to improve and adapt; ability to establish adequate relationships with faculty and administrative personnel; ability to meet reasonable expectations of peers and standards of good citizenship. The following examples describe the kinds of behavior that would warrant an Institutional Physicianship Evaluation: a student's behavior violates the law or the norms of moral decency, a student falsifies financial information in order to procure student loans; a student does not respond in a reasonable manner to multiple communications from the Offices of Medical Education or Student Affairs; a student does not meet the requirements that are in place to progress to clinical responsibility, including but not limited to receiving required immunizations, scheduling and completing USMLE Step 1 and Step 2 by the required dates. Rapid feedback to students is a goal of this evaluation process and will be prioritized whenever information becomes available. An Institutional Physicianship Evaluation will be completed and submitted after attempts to give the student feedback about these issues have been unsuccessful. Such feedback, though strongly encouraged, is not required in order to submit an Institutional Physicianship Evaluation. The student will meet and discuss the evaluation with the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs, and the student's response, including a corrective plan, is recorded. If the student disagrees about the merits of the submission of an Institutional Physicianship Evaluation, the student may ask for review by an inquiry committee, to be constituted in the manner described above. The inquiry committee's findings and recommendations are sent to the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs, who forwards them on to the MSPPSC for decision. If the evaluation is found invalid, the issue will be dropped. Otherwise, actions taken by the MSPPSC, based on information from the Database and the inquiry committee, include: no action, SI by the Senior Associate Dean for Student Affairs, or other disciplinary actions as may be indicated.