Guidelines for Professional Behavior and Interaction

Implementation Date: 9/21/2011

Date of Last Revision: 8/3/2022

Next Review Due: 8/2/2025

 

Reviewed by VTH Administrative Team: N/A

Reviewed by VTH Board: 5/19/2011

 

Reviewed by Legal Counsel: N/A

Reviewed by Biosecurity Subcommittee: N/A

Subject to modification by the VTH Director without approval.

Policy

These guidelines were developed to provide a solid framework for monitoring and bench-marking our professional conduct and apply to all faculty, house officers and hospital staff members. 

Guidelines

Preparation for a career in veterinary medicine demands the acquisition of a large fund of knowledge and a host of special skills. It also demands the strengthening of those virtues that stabilize and support the doctor/patient/client relationship and sustain the profession of veterinary medicine as a moral endeavor. These Guidelines serve both as a pledge and as a reminder to us all that our conduct in fulfilling our mutual obligations is the medium through which the profession demonstrates its ethical values.These guidelines were developed to provide a solid framework for monitoring and bench-marking our professional conduct and apply to all faculty, house officers and hospital staff members. 

GUIDING PRINCIPLES 

DUTY 
Veterinary medical educators have a duty, not only to convey the knowledge and skills required for delivering the profession’s contemporary standard of care, but also to instill and promote the values and attitudes required for preserving the veterinary medical profession’s social contract. 

INTEGRITY
The learning environments conducive to conveying professional values must be suffused with integrity. Students learn enduring lessons of professionalism by observing and emulating role models who epitomize professional values and attitudes. 

RESPECT
Fundamental to the ethic of veterinary medicine is respect for every individual. Mutual respect between learners, as novice members of the veterinary medical 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 professional students, graduate students, interns, residents, and hospital staff are always treated respectfully.

Conduct Guidelines to be adhered to during all forms of communication, written or verbal

Responsibility and integrity are recognized in individuals who:

• Follow generally accepted professional norms for appearance, dress, and professional behavior 
• Recognize their own limits, correctly estimate their own abilities, and recognize when to seek help
• Accept and incorporate feedback in a non-resistant and non-defensive manner
• Accept responsibility for failure or errors
• Complete tasks in a timely fashion
• Do not need reminders about academic responsibilities, responsibilities to patients or to other healthcare professionals in order to complete them
• Are appropriately available for professional responsibilities (required activities, available on clinical services, responds to calls/pager)
• Take on appropriate patient care activities (do not “turf” cases or responsibilities)
• Never misrepresent or falsify information and/or actions
• Conform to policies governing behavior such as sexual harassment, consensual amorous relationships, hazing, use of alcohol, and any other existing policy of the veterinary school.
• Never misuse professional position for personal gain.
• Do not engage in other unethical behavior

Collegiality within Professional Relationships is recognized in individuals who:

• Maintain a professional demeanor even when stressed and are not verbally hostile, abusive, dismissive, or inappropriately angry
• Are not arrogant or insolent
• Accept and incorporate feedback in a non-resistant and non-defensive manner
• Accept responsibility for failure or errors
• Provide clear direction and timely feedback as well as constructive suggestions and opportunities for improvement or remediation when needed when in a supervisory role
• Show sensitivity to the needs, feelings, and wishes of health care team members
• Relate and cooperate well with all members of the health care team
• Never express anger physically 

Communication excellence is recognized in individuals who:

• Communicate with other members of the healthcare team in a respectful and timely manner
• Communicate with referring veterinarians and owners in a respectful and timely manner
• Maintain confidentiality of patient/owner information
• Make appropriate attempts to establish rapport with owners/handlers
• Show sensitivity to the owners’ feelings, needs, and wishes
• Demonstrate appropriate empathy
• Relate and cooperate well with members of the health care team

Oversight:
Concerns regarding unprofessional conduct will be referred to a Hospital Committee for Professional Conduct for inquiry and possible disciplinary action.

House officers: 
Tribunal, 1 house officer (resident) and 1 faculty each from the Small Animal Clinic and Large Animal Clinic to be elected yearly. One appointed member from the Intern Resident Committee who will serve as chair for a 2-year term.

Potential disciplinary actions:

• Letter of censure
• Loss of clinic privilege
• Loss of travel funds
• Loss of continuing education time for a proscribed period
• Extra clinic or on-call duty
• Loss of position 

Faculty: 
Two faculty each from the Small Animal Clinic and Large Animal Clinic to be elected yearly. One appointed member from the Hospital Management Group who will serve as chair for a 2-year term

Definitions (if applicable)

Veterinary Teaching Hospital (VTH): The collective clinical services of the Large Animal Clinic, Midwest Equine, the Small Animal Clinic, and the Veterinary Medicine South Clinic.