Professionalism: Students' Rights and Responsibilities

In 2004 UTMB implemented an On Line Student Professionalism Button to allow students to report incidents of unprofessional behavior among faculty and staff, as well as, fellow students. This reporting tool http://www.utmb.edu/professionalism/student_help/Default.htm is a resource for students seeking to report unprofessional incidents to a neutral third party. Student confidentiality and safety is important and will be protected within appropriate limits.

Examples of unprofessional behavior can include such things as verbal abuse or offensive remarks such as public belittlement or humiliation. For more information about the reporting process and links to other resources for students please go the link provided above.

Since 1997 UTMB has implemented efforts to enhance awareness and expectations of professionalism standards in order to improve patient safety, student learning and work relationships among all employees. With the adoption of the UTMB Professionalism Charter (2002) http://www.utmb.edu/professionalism/activities/charter.htm we made a collective agreement to uphold the Charter's principals and commitments to professional responsibilities. Our Online Student Professionalism Button continues this effort to enhance our organizational culture.

Students can access the link from the Surgery home page, UTMB home page and/or Student Services homepage. Should a student use the online tool to report a grievance, that grievance will go to Dr. Rebecca Saavedra, associate vice president of Student Services and co-chair of the UTMB Professionalism Subcommittee. Dr. Saavedra has been the liaison for student concerns or grievances in her role as UTMB's Student Ombudsman since 1991, so in this respect the process for responding to student concerns or complaints remains the same.

In addition, Dr. Alice Anne O'Donell, professor and director of predoctoral education in the Department of Family Medicine, co-chair of the UTMB Professionalism Subcommittee and John McGovern Scholar of Oslerian Medicine will connect with the faculty member, and in some cases his or her department chair (or division chief). The goal of Dr. O'Donell's involvement in the process is to also understand and provide information and support.

The incident reporting tool is part of other institutional efforts (e.g. Student Early Concern Note and Faculty Performance Evaluations) to promote a culture of professionalism, and you can find our more on the UTMB professionalism web site home page, located at http://www.utmb.edu/professionalism/. If you have questions or comments, you may contact Drs. O'Donell and Saavedra.