When you graduate from medical school and start your residency program in Mississippi, you are entering a whole new chapter of your life. You will get real-world experience with patients and colleagues and finally get to put your education to the test. And despite the fact that a medical residency is still technically a training program, your supervisors and patients will hold you accountable for every single one of your actions. Your responsibilities include both ethical and professional behavior. All this pressure can lead to overwhelm, and unfortunately, sometimes mistakes are made.
While everyone makes mistakes, including your supervisors and colleagues, doctors are held to a higher standard because their mistakes can cost a life. If you find that you are facing issues because of the pressure of working long hours filled with stress and anxiety, and those issues are preventing you from completing your residency, a medical resident defense advisor can help. Call our offices today.
Dismissal From Mississippi Residency Programs
Unfortunately, if you make a personal or professional mistake during your medical residency program, it will not only affect your career but your reputation as a doctor as well. This is especially true for medical residents in Mississippi, who see more patients from rural communities than other states. One mistake will affect how those communities view your capabilities. It could mean the difference between a successful practice after residency and having to find a new career.
Mississippi is home to several top-notch residency programs, and whether you are a first-year or a more seasoned resident, the stress of making it through each day, keeping up with the workload, continuing to learn and train, and meeting the expectations of your supervisors is overwhelming. Sadly, overwhelm can often lead to an increase in mistakes. Your residency program understands this, so your personal and professional behavior, capability, and observance of the rules will be under a microscope. Any deviation from the norm could lead to dismissal from your program. This is especially true if you have more than one violation, are unable to perform in several categories of your residency or have made a grievous error.
Ethical Personal or Professional Behavior
The medical profession really is one of a kind. Other professions build in flexibility when their professionals make mistakes, but with the medical residency, mistakes can have serious consequences. Public trust is the most important aspect of a medical doctor's career; without it, they wouldn't have any patients.
Doctors are expected to have the proper training and instruction, not just in their medical knowledge but in their professional and personal behavior as well. The American Medical Association (AMA) has also laid out a specific, national, code of medical ethics that medical residents are expected to abide by to improve public health and the value of patient care. Some examples of violations to the code of medical ethics include:
- Using social media carelessly
- Being accused of sexual misconduct
- Accepting bribes
- Having a conflict of interest with a patient and still making care decisions for them
- Being publicly intoxicated or abusing substances while working
- Receiving a DUI or being charged with assault
- Stealing pharmaceutical drugs from the hospital
- Discriminating against others – patients, colleagues, hospital staff, or anyone outside the hospital
- The inability to manage stress which will lead to medical errors
Any of these actions could lead to punishments by the medical review board or dismissal from your medical residency altogether. If you receive sanctions or dismissal, it will have long-lasting consequences on your future.
Proficiency Issues
Ethical capabilities can only get you so far when you are a medical resident. While they are extremely important, if you are unable to master the core proficiencies of the medical field, you will have a hard time progressing to the next stage of your career.
The Accreditation Council for Medical Education (ACGME) has stipulated six areas in which medical residents must be proficient in order to practice medicine:
- Patient Care: You must be able to give your patients high-quality, compassionate care that is appropriate and effective to treat their health issues.
- Medical Knowledge: Medical residents must have both a strong understanding of theoretical biomedical and clinical information but also how to apply it for their patients in real-time.
- Practice-based Learning and Improvement: Medical residents are expected to consistently turn inward and self-evaluate their performance to enhance their proficiency in the medical field over time. Only then will you truly be capable of working as an unsupervised doctor.
- Interpersonal and Communication Skills: Knowing how to communicate with everyone from the hospital administrative staff to your nurses, patients, colleagues, and supervisors will reduce the potential for errors. You will learn how to collaborate and exchange ideas and information, allowing you to provide better patient care and treatment.
- Professionalism: Doctors are expected to uphold professionalism and adhere to ethical principles while being sensitive to what the people around them actually need. If you cannot maintain the boundaries of professionalism, it will lead to larger consequences down the line and could result in the loss or suspension of your medical residency or license.
- Systems-based Practice: You must be able to prove that you are aware and proficient in national healthcare systems, as well as the ones in Mississippi.
Sanctions and the Disciplinary Board
All teaching hospitals have disciplinary boards that will enforce compliance with the hospital and medical resident programs' policies. If a student violates any of these policies, they may receive a sanction from the board. Sanctions could be anything from a verbal reprimand to dismissal from the program altogether. Whatever you receive, it will be an issue later on in life.
In Mississippi, you are expected to disclose any disciplinary action from your residency program before you can work as an unsupervised physician. If the action was a serious violation, it could prevent you from obtaining your license to practice medicine, which in turn would affect your reputation and future career prospects.
Hiring an Attorney-Advisor
No matter what year you are in your residency, getting through it without any major disciplinary issues is important for your career. But sometimes, even the most careful residents make a mistake. If you have been notified of a disciplinary board for review, the best thing you can do is reach out to a medical resident defense advisor for help. Attorney Joseph D. Lento and Lento Law Firm have years of experience helping medical students across the country who have found themselves in similar situations. As a national medical resident attorney, Attorney Lento has the experience to negotiate with your program's general counsel to reach a reasonable resolution and mitigate any chance of litigation. Call our offices today at 888-535-3686 today or schedule a consultation online.
