B. Policy for Professional Behavior

B. POLICY FOR PROFESSIONAL BEHAVIOR

The faculty and student body of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School, Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing regard the following as guidelines for professional conduct. All members of the UMass Chan Medical School Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing community are to act professionally in the school, hospital, clinics and in the community with or in front of patients, families, members of the health care team and others in the professional environment including members of the faculty and administration, other students, standardized patients and staff.

All allegations of misconduct, whether made by students, faculty or administrative personnel, are to be directed to the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs or their designee. All information concerning allegations of misconduct is privileged and confidential and will not be discussed outside of the appropriate process.

Overview

Students in the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing shall conduct themselves in a manner consistent with the values of the professional schools of the University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School campus and of the American Association of the Colleges of Nursing, of which the Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing is a member. The Social Policy Statement, Code of Ethics and the Scope and Standards of Nursing and of Advanced Practice Nursing of the American Nurses Association (ANA), the Good Moral Character Clause of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Nursing (MA BORN), and the Scope of Practice for Academic Nurse Educators from the National League for Nursing (NLN) shall also serve as standards for professional conduct for students.

Empathy, integrity, honesty, concern for others, good interpersonal skills, interest and motivation are all personal qualities that are required.

Students must possess the emotional health required for full use of their intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of responsibilities and the development of mature, sensitive and effective relationships with patients and colleagues. At times, this requires the ability to be aware of and appropriately react to one's own immediate emotional responses. For example, students must maintain a professional demeanor and be organized while confronting stressful work situations such as long hours, dissatisfied patients and tired colleagues.

Students must be able to develop professional relationships with patients and colleagues, providing comfort and reassurance when appropriate while protecting patient confidentiality. Students must possess adequate endurance to tolerate physically taxing workloads and to function effectively under stress. All students are required, at times, to work for extended periods. Students must be able to adapt to changing environments, to display flexibility and to learn to function in the face of uncertainties.

Students shall take responsibility for their nursing practice and their academic progress, including being prepared for clinical and classroom activities, completing requirements in a timely fashion,

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recognizing their own limits, seeking assistance as appropriate and accepting responsibility for their errors. They shall accept appropriate suggestions and criticism from faculty and preceptors, and, if appropriate, modify behavior. In addition, all students must be effective in both the formal and informal work groups that design, implement and monitor systems to achieve stated goals. This requires the ability to interpret and interact in group processes; to access and interpret data from management information systems; and to analyze and interpret legislative and regulatory initiatives.

Students shall not compromise patient care or safety for any reason, including but not limited to physical or psychological illness or disability in the student. Deficiencies in knowledge base, judgment, integrity, character or professional attitude or demeanor that may jeopardize patient care may be grounds for failure and possible dismissal. Students who compromise patient care or safety will be asked to leave the clinical setting.

Students who themselves are at greater risk for illness or injury because of being in a clinical setting, including but not limited to students with immune disorders, or who may pose a risk to others due to a blood-born pathogen disease, must abide by the Policy on Students Infected with a Blood-Borne Disease.

Specific behaviors considered unacceptable include, but are not limited to:

Cheating

• Copying from another, submitting others work as your own, “recycling” papers or assignments completed by others as your own or obtaining answers to assignments prior to their administration. • Submitting work that has not been independently created.

Fabrication

• Falsification of any citation or information including resubmission of previously completed works that are not one’s own.

Facilitating dishonesty

• Knowingly helping another to commit dishonesty includes allowing another to copy your work in assignments or examinations.

Plagiarism

• Representing another’s work as your own. • Failing to identify works or partial works with appropriate citations from printed or electronic sources. • Incorporating another person’s work into assignments as your own. • Works independently taking credit only for own work/contributions that have been independently created.

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