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situations, hearing the resident’s side of the story provides an unknown perspective
to a situation. Once the resident has an opportunity to be heard, then the program
must determine the next steps.
- Does the resident not contest the allegation? If they admit to the allegation, then
perhaps no further investigation needs to be done. At that point, the program
director may be able to determine what the appropriate next step is, including
dismissal. - Does the resident contest the allegation? If the resident provides a different per-
spective or contradictory information, then it’s incumbent on the program direc-
tor to inquire further. This may mean conducting an investigation to learn
additional facts from other people, documents, or records.
Deficiency in Professionalism or Misconduct?
You receive a phone call concerning Dr. Jones, a fifth-year resident who is due
to graduate in 1 month. To date, there have not been any serious performance
issues with Dr. Jones, but he has “pushed the envelope” a few times with
issues related to honesty and integrity. The program administrator is report-
ing to you that she has collected the resident’s procedure logs, and based on
the ledger, it appears that Dr. Jones has falsified information in the logs. It is
noted that all of the entries for the past 10 months are written with the same
pen and in the same format and appears at face value to have been entered all
at once. You tell the administrator to bring you the documents; you examine
them personally and agree with her assessment. You then look up a couple of
the patients listed in the log and confirm that the information is either incor-
rect or nonexistent in the medical records. You share this with several of the
core faculty, and all are in agreement that Dr. Jones must be fired for this
serious breach of honesty.
Question to consider: Is this matter an academic issue or misconduct?
Since it deals with behavior (conduct), it should be treated as misconduct until
more information can be received. In order to treat the matter as misconduct,
the program director should meet with the resident, present the allegations,
and hear Dr. Jones’ side of the story (e.g., notice of charges, an opportunity to
be heard, and a reasonable decision-making process). This should happen
prior to the program director, or the faculty, assessing judgment.
You meet with Dr. Jones and share the information, allegations, and proce-
dure log. Dr. Jones quickly admits, without shame, that he procrastinated and
in fact wrote all 10 months’ worth of procedures in 1 day; furthermore, he
notes there were several that he couldn’t remember exact dates or names.
However, he shares with you that the associate program director (a fairly new
graduate of your program) told him to do this and said it was common prac-
tice and it wasn’t a big deal.K. Broquet and J.S. Padmore