Professionalism

We at Lyon College of School of Dental Medicine (LCSDM) are committed to providing and maintaining a safe, effective, and humanistic learning environment in which all members of our community function together collaboratively. If Honor has a focus on maintaining excellence and value to LCSDM academics, Professionalism extends that honor to interpersonal relationships. 

As an institution that trains the leaders of tomorrow, we expect members of our community to uphold an environment that encourages mutually respectful relationships, is conducive to learning, and is free of mistreatment, unlawful discrimination and harassment, or threats of retaliation.

Honor is evident in the relations among individuals and interpersonally manifests itself as civility, a natural extension of professional deportment. At LCSDM, we understand honor to include, but not be limited to, a commitment to:

• Tell the truth steadfastly but with kindness
• Treat others with respect, even in challenging situations
• Respect others’ property and shared property, such as the simulation clinic and clinic equipment
• Uphold the integrity and confidentiality of official college documents, including and especially patient records

I. Rationale

It is important for all members of the campus community to provide and maintain a safe, effective, and humanistic learning environment. It is therefore unacceptable for a teacher (e.g., faculty member or others acting in a teaching role) to engage in discrimination or harassment, and/or mistreatment of students. In addition, anyone in a teaching role must adhere to applicable School, campus, extramural, and college-wide policies, procedures, and guidelines that establish standards for professionalism and conduct, as well as those principles of professionalism and ethics generally accepted within the dental profession and academic environment. Similarly, it is unacceptable for students to treat faculty, program directors, staff, colleagues, or administration with disrespect, or in any other manner that violates The LCSDM Code of Professionalism for Students or other applicable Lyon College Policy. Finally, staff must treat peers in the LCSDM workplace with respect and be treated with respect. *Students can refer to the handbook for more details on how this operates on campus.

Students, faculty members, administrative and clinical staff, members of the administration and other employees of the LCSDM education community have a shared responsibility to protect the integrity of the learning environment, have a right to work and learn free of unlawful discrimination, harassment and mistreatment, and have a responsibility to report any incident in which that positive learning environment has been compromised.

II. Applicability

This policy is applicable to all dental students enrolled in academic programs, all faculty, staff, and administrators employed by LCSDM, and all other faculty and teachers holding appointments with LCSDM, as well as any other affiliated members of the SDM community.

III. Characteristics of a Humanistic Learning Environment

In accordance with standards set by the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA), the learning environment of the dental education program should be “humanistic” and carry a pedagogy that inculcates respect, tolerance, understanding, and concern for others, and is fostered by mentoring, advising, and small group interaction. A dental school environment characterized by respectful professional relationships between and among faculty, students, and staff establishes a context for the development of interpersonal skills necessary for learning, for patient care, and for making meaningful professional contributions to dentistry and to society.

IV. Responsibilities for LCSDM Community Members for Interpersonal Relationships and Communication

Faculty, students, and staff members have the responsibility for creating and maintaining a positive learning environment by:

1. Complying with all applicable policies, procedures, and guidelines establishes expectations for professionalism and other standards of conduct.
2. Attending, being prepared and on time for, and participating in all work, academic and clinical activities, and learning experiences consistent with the expectations of the SDM and/or experiential learning sites.
3. Respecting all individuals, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, genetic information, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a protected veteran.
4. Seeking out, accepting, and learning from feedback in a respectful and receptive manner.
5. Seeking clarification on what does and does not constitute mistreatment.
6. Demonstrating/modeling the professional virtues of compassion, integrity, courage, temperance, and altruism.
7. Maintaining high professional standards in all interactions.
8. Complying with the policies related to claims of unlawful discrimination, harassment, mistreatment, and retaliation, and understanding how those claims are reported.
9. Reporting and encouraging the reporting of mistreatment by those who witness or experience it.

V. Additional Responsibilities of Faculty

The role of the faculty is to create an environment that facilitates learning by ensuring responsibility and accountability; demonstrating respect for students as individuals and adhering to their proper roles as intellectual and practice guides and counselors; making every reasonable effort to foster honest academic/professional conduct; ensuring that their evaluations of students accurately reflect each student’s abilities; respecting the boundaries of the relationship between faculty and student; and avoiding any exploitation, harassment, discrimination and/or mistreatment of the student. As such, teachers, in addition to the above expectations, must:

1. Ensure the quality of all components of the students’ education programs.
2. Nurture students’ intellectual, professional, and personal development and achievement of academic excellence.'
3. Support students’ well-being.
4. Refuse to tolerate abuse or exploitation of students.
5. Refuse to engage in or tolerate reprisals or retaliation of any kind as a result of a good-faith report of mistreatment.
6. Take responsibility for students assigned to one’s course or rotation, and ensure a safe, fair, supportive, unbiased learning environment that respects each student’s physical and social boundaries and encourages their development as health care professionals.
7. Assign tasks to students based on their knowledge, skills, and experience.
8. Provide supervision and appropriate remediation when students are not adequately prepared.
9. Provide feedback to students in a timely, constructive, respectful, personalized, and unambiguous manner.

VI. Academic Discourse

Vigorous academic discourse and the conflict of ideas are integral to an academic environment of openness, so long as they are conducted civilly and respectfully. Asking and answering questions as a means to stimulate critical thinking and draw out ideas and underlying assumptions is also critical to the academic environment, but can and should be done respectfully. In addition, constructive feedback about performance is crucial to the educational process and professional development. Some feedback may be critical, harsh, or even discouraging. It is not uncommon to, at times, feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when mistakes are made, questions are answered incorrectly, or one is not adequately prepared for a required activity. However, not every behavior or action to which a person responds with stress or emotional discomfort is considered mistreatment. Each individual should reflect on each such situation and consider not just his/her personal reaction or response, but also the actions of others in light of any legitimate concerns for patient safety, the circumstances surrounding the situation, and the possible learning objectives of the experience. In general, actions taken in good faith and done respectfully and constructively to assess or develop knowledge/skill, and/or to correct unacceptable performance/behavior are not considered mistreatment.

Mistreatment arises when behavior denigrates the dignity of others and unreasonably interferes with the learning process/environment, whether that behavior is experienced or observed.

Publicly humiliating, physically harming, exploiting, and/or subjecting an individual to unwanted sexual advances are all examples of mistreatment.

VII. Reporting Mistreatment & Other Learning Environment Concerns

Anyone who experiences or witnesses an incident of mistreatment is encouraged to make a report utilizing an online Report Form (https://forms.lyon.edu/Forms/ProfessionalismConcern). The reporting can be submitted confidentially to the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions. Any retribution for good faith reporting of mistreatment is strictly forbidden by this policy and will be treated as its own violation of professional conduct.

Professionalism is a significant aspect of a Dental Student’s Academic Performance.

These expectations are outlined below and in the student handbook. We require you to apply professional responsibility as you make decisions in the classroom, simulation clinic, clinic, and at all LCSDM sponsored events. As representatives of the school, students are expected to conduct themselves in the manner described below both on and off campus. 

In most cases, deviations from expected professionalism will initially be addressed with verbal counseling. Repeat incidents are followed up with a Professional Concern Report form, from the Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Admission, in consultation with the Academic Progress Committee, with recommendations and required follow up activities. This report will be shared with the student and copied to the student’s permanent academic record. 

Repeated lapses  in professional behavior after initial counseling or, in rare cases, deviations deemed severe enough by the Course Director may result in a lowered course grade, remission to the Honor Council, or even in course failure. Persistent PCRs indicate a lack of professionalism will be referred to the Academic Performance Committee.