Student Code of Conduct
Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) students should explicitly uphold the basic principles of behavior that constitute the highest standards of academic, professional and ethical conduct, as described in the Student Code of Conduct. Agreement to the Code of Conduct by signature is required of each student before completing registration to enter the medical school. The Code of Conduct is not intended to be a mere listing of matters that constitute infractions but is intended to be a declaration made by each student to uphold the high standards of integrity and honesty of the medical science professions
Students are responsible for complying with all policies/procedures, rules, regulations and other information outlined in LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport Chancellor’s Memoranda (CM-21): CM21
Student Responsibilities
The LSUHSC-S is dedicated to providing its students, residents, faculty, staff, and patients with an environment of respect, dignity, and support. The diverse backgrounds, personalities, and learning needs of individual students must be considered at all times in order to foster appropriate and effective teacher-learner relationships. Honesty, fairness, evenhanded treatment, and respect for students’ physical and emotional well-being are the foundation of establishing an effective learning environment.
Students are responsible for complying with all policies/procedures, rules and regulations and other information published by LSUHSC-S.
Students are expected to:
- Exhibit the highest standard of personal, academic professional and ethical behavior.
- Treat faculty, staff, peers, clients, patients, and others with dignity and respect.
- Abide by the Code of Conduct that applies to their specific professional discipline.
- Abide by all federal, state and local laws.
Students who violate any of the above when involved in any school or school-related activity/function, whether on or off campus, will be subject to disciplinary action. Any disciplinary action imposed by the School of Medicine may precede or follow a course independent of any penalty imposed by any off-campus authority. The judgment and action of the School of Medicine relates to the violation as an indication of professional behavior and fitness for the role of a physician rather than as a criminal or civil offense.
- Students must notify the Office of Student Affairs of any citations, arrests or convictions (other than minor traffic violations) within five (5) business days after the charge of an offense. Failure to do so and subsequent notification during a required background check may result in disciplinary action including dismissal.
- If at the time of graduation unresolved criminal charges or proceedings are pending against a student which, in the sole opinion of the Dean if sustained would prevent the university from conferring a degree of medicine, the Dean shall withhold the degree until such time the matter is resolved. An appeal of this decision may be made to the Chancellor for cause. In the event the student is exonerated, or the charges are dropped, the degree will be conferred.
Misconduct for which students are subject to discipline is outlined, but not limited to the categories below:
Academic Dishonesty
To obtain an unfair advantage by (a) cheating on examinations or other academic work (b) unauthorized collaboration on an academic assignment; (c) retaining, possessing, memorizing, using, or circulating previously given examination materials, where those materials clearly indicate that they are to be sequestered; (d) intentionally obstructing or interfering with another student’s academic work.
Furnishing false or misleading information to any University office, official, faculty member, staff member, or student acting in an official capacity, or giving false or misleading testimony or other falsified evidence at any campus disciplinary proceeding.
Forgery, alteration, falsification or misuse of any University document, record, or instrument of identification. To misrepresent or falsify research data. To misrepresent or falsify data or results concerning a patient’s clinical status or to break the confidentiality of any person in treatment or rehabilitation
Disruption or obstruction of teaching, research, administrative, or disciplinary proceedings of the University. This includes public service or other authorized University activities on or off the University premises.
Physical abuse, verbal abuse, threats, intimidation, harassment, coercion and/or other conduct, which threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person. Speech protected by the first amendment is not a violation of this provision, although statements which reasonably threaten or endanger the health or safety of any person are not protected speech
Breach of computer security or unauthorized use of computer facilities, including but not limited to: Unauthorized entry into a file; Unauthorized transfer or copy of a file; Unauthorized use of another individual’s username and password; Use of computing facilities to interfere with the work of another student, faculty, or staff; Use of computing facilities to send obscene or abusive message; Negligence in protecting passwords.
Malicious treatment, harassment, threat or intimidation of others, including sexual harassment.
Mistreatment and abuse of students by faculty, residents, staff or fellow students is contrary to the educational objectives of the LSUHSC in Shreveport and will not be tolerated. Mistreatment and abuse include, but are not limited to, berating, belittling, or humiliation; physical punishment or threats; intimidation; harassment or discrimination based on race, gender, sexual preference, age, religion, physical or learning disabilities; assigning a grade for reasons other than the student’s performance; assigning tasks for punishment or non-educational purposes; requiring the performance of personal services; or failing to give students credit for work they have done. Sexual harassment in any form is not condoned and policies and procedures governing this type of mistreatment is covered under LSUHSC-S Title IX policies and procedures
Failure to report violations of the Student Code of Conduct.
Behavior, which is determined to be unprofessional.
Serious violations of the Student Code of Conduct may warrant dismissal from the School of Medicine. The procedures for investigating and adjudicating allegations of unprofessional behavior, academic dishonesty, or violations of the Student Code of Conduct are discussed in the section entitled Addressing Unprofessional Behavior.
Preventing Student Mistreatment
The Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center Shreveport (LSUHSC-S) is dedicated to providing its students, residents, faculty, staff, and patients with an environment of respect, dignity, and support. The diverse backgrounds, personalities, and learning needs of individual students must be considered at all times in order to foster appropriate and effective teacher-learner relationships. Honesty, fairness, evenhanded treatment, and respect for students’ physical and emotional well-being are the foundation of establishing an effective learning environment.
Student’s Rights
Students have rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution and all appropriate federal, state and local laws. Primary among those is the right to a fair and impartial hearing, if the student is accused of misconduct or violating university regulations. LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport has existing policies and procedures that relate to the following: financial aid; sexual harassment; final grade appeal; parking; illegal drugs; alcohol; firearms/weapons; a student’s access to records, and privacy; computer/internet/email use; dress and professional conduct; health insurance; and liability insurance. Issues that relate to these specific policies, which may be found on the LSUHSC-S website, should be addressed to the appropriate office.
Mistreatment and abuse of students by faculty, residents, or staff is contrary to the educational objectives of the LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport and will not be tolerated. Mistreatment and abuse include, but are not limited to, berating, belittling, or humiliation; physical punishment or threats; intimidation; sexual harassment; harassment or discrimination based on race, gender, sexual preference, age, religion, physical or learning disabilities; assigning a grade for reasons other than the student’s performance; assigning tasks for punishment or non-educational purposes; requiring the performance of personal services; or failing to give students credit for work they have done. Additionally, students have the right to file a complaint for alleged mistreatment.
Addressing Unprofessional Behavior
Professional behavior is expected of School of Medicine students throughout their matriculation in the medical school curriculum. Professional conduct includes, but is not limited to, a responsibility to patients, peers, faculty members, staff, and oneself. It also includes responsibility for self-education and self-improvement, timeliness, attendance, and active participation in course activities. It remains the student’s sole responsibility to conduct him/herself in a manner that supports and promotes the high standards of integrity and honesty required in the medical science professions. Ignorance of a violation cannot be a defense for the accused.
Professional behavior is considered when grades are assigned by Course or Clerkship Directors in all basic science and clinical courses. Students may be disciplined (including probation or dismissal) for unprofessional behavior, even if such unprofessional behavior did not affect the student’s grade. Expectations for professional behavior increase as a medical student moves into the clinical rotations and assumes responsibility for patient care.
Reporting Unprofessional Behavior
Faculty, staff, residents, or students may report any allegations of breaches of medical student professional conduct directly to the Associate Dean of Student Affairs or by completing and submitting the Medical Student Professionalism Complaint Reporting Form.
As a first step, the reported student will be required to meet with the Associate Dean for Student Affairs/or their designee at which time correction and remediation of the poor professional behavior will be addressed. In most instances, the issue will be resolved in this setting.
If the Associate Dean determines that no further action is warranted, a record of the professionalism complaint will be maintained in the Student Affairs Office. If no other professionalism issues occur throughout the student’s medical school career, no record of the incident will be recorded in the student’s permanent file. However, If the student accumulates more than two (2) professionalism complaint forms, the student may be referred to the Professionalism Committee for further action.
If the Associate Dean determines that the behavior warrants more serious review, such as in cases where the unprofessional behavior is repetitive or egregious, the student will be referred to the Professionalism Committee.
If it is determined that a referral to the Professionalism Committee is warranted, the Associate Dean then arranges for a written summary of the complaint to be provided to the Chair of the Professionalism Committee and to the student.
Professionalism Committee
The purpose of the School of Medicine Professionalism Committee is to enhance and encourage medical student professional behavior, to review-in strict confidence-instances of substandard medical student professional behavior, to determine correction or remediation for this behavior including, in certain cases, a recommendation to the Dean of the School of Medicine for dismissal.
The Professionalism Committee is a standing committee of the School of Medicine composed of twelve (12) members, including a Chair and Vice-Chair. The Committee is composed of a diverse group of clinical and basic science faculty who have demonstrated exemplary behavior at LSU Health Sciences Center Shreveport. Additional member(s) who are ex-officio, non-voting members of the Committee include the Associate Dean for Student Affairs and the Director for Student Affairs. Committee members serve for 3-year term staggered terms, with the option for renewal of an additional term.
Upon receipt of a written complaint, the Chair or Vice-chair will be responsible for scheduling a Professionalism Committee meeting and notifying the Associate Dean of Student Affairs. In turn, the Associate Dean of Student Affairs will notify the student via email of the date, time, and location of the meeting. The student shall be given at least seven (7) days’ notice of the date, time, place for such meetings, and the name of the Chair of the Professionalism Committee.
Professionalism Committee Meeting Procedures
A quorum of seven (7) members is required for meeting and decision making of the Professionalism Committee
- Professionalism Committee meetings shall be conducted in private. Admission of any person to the meeting shall be at the discretion of the Professionalism Committee Chairperson. All procedural questions are subject to the final decision of the Professionalism Committee Chair.
- If more than one student is the subject of the complaint, then the Chair, in his or her discretion, may call for separate meetings to be conducted for each student.
- A student who is the subject of a complaint brought before the Professionalism Committee may ask the Director for Student Affairs or another member of the medical school community to accompany and advise him or her throughout the process. The advisor’s function is not to serve as an advocate but, instead, as a liaison with the School to help the student understand how the Committee functions and how best to address the complaint before the Committee.
- Students are responsible for presenting all information related to the complaint to the Professionalism Committee. Advisors are not permitted to participate directly in any meeting before the Professionalism Committee.
- The subject student may submit a written statement prior to the Professional Committee meeting to assure that the Committee has adequate information. If the student believes that other community members have relevant information, he or she should indicate such in the written statement. The Chair has the discretion to decide which, if any, community members should be contacted and or appear at the Professional Committee meeting.
- The Professional Committee, at the discretion of the Chair, may invite faculty, students, administrators, or other members of the community who may have information that is relevant to the matter under review to share such information with the Committee. Ordinarily, the names of such community members, and, if applicable, written statements from them, will be provided to the student in advance of the Professional Committee meeting.
- After hearing all student and complainant presentations, the Professionalism Committee shall determine whether the student has violated the Student Code of Conduct. The Committee’s determination shall be made based on whether it is more likely than not that the student violated the Student Code of Conduct.
- The Professionalism Committee shall decide on the appropriate sanction or remediation plan, if any, that is needed.
- The Professionalism Committee Chair or the Vice-Chair shall convey in writing the Committee’s final decision within seven (7) days of completion of the Committee’s meeting to the student and the Associate Dean for Student Affairs.
Material related to the Professionalism Committee process is maintained confidentially in the student’s academic file. The Association for American Medical Colleges (AAMC) requires that professionalism issues that rise to the level of review and sanction by a professionalism committee must be reported in the Medical Student Performance Evaluation (MSPE).
If the student demonstrates a pattern of recidivism or fails to complete the required remediation plan as outlined, the matter will be returned to the Professionalism Committee. The Professionalism Committee will then submit its recommendation for additional action that may include dismissal. The Dean of the School of Medicine , or his/her designee, will make the final determination.
Appeal Procedure
As a matter of right, a student may appeal the decision of the Professionalism Committee. An appeal must be made to the Dean of the School of Medicine within ten (10) working days of the Professionalism Committee’s decision. In general, requests for an appeal should be based on information not previously considered.
The Dean of the School of Medicine, or his/her designee, shall decide within ten (10) working days after receipt of appeal whether further action should be taken.
Once a decision is made, the Dean, or his/her designee, will notify all parties of the decision. The decision of the Dean, or his/her designee, shall conclude the matter.
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