W302 - Oh No They Didn’t! How to Address Unethical or Unprofessional Clinician Behavior

Session Description: Unprofessional clinician conduct comes in all shapes and sizes. Common examples include sending unwelcome flirtatious texts, accessing electronic medical records without authorization, “forgetting” to disclose information on credentialing applications, and making racial, cultural, or gender-based slurs.

While professional missteps and boundary breaches may have been underreported and sometimes overlooked in the past, that is no longer the case. Today’s hospital leaders are much less tolerant of such behavior. Medical staff professionals (MSPs) need to have an appropriate and practical spectrum of approaches to address this type of conduct. Failing to do so can negatively impact patients and staff and can result in significant legal risks and repercussions for the institution.

In this session, the MSP will learn about common professionalism lapses, how to strengthen bylaws and other policies to address them, and the array of strategies that can help medical staff leaders handle these issues in a manner commensurate with the conduct. Audience members are also invited to “Stump the Experts” by presenting actual cases (without identifying details) for the presenters to tackle. This session will enhance the MSP’s ability to structure meaningful interventions for professionalism lapses that address the conduct, give the clinician skills to avoid future missteps, and cultivate positive, respectful relationships with co-workers, patients, and families.