All good points. To recap the events until now... I got pushed by an attending, told my PD/chair immediately and requested to change services, filed a police report, met with PD/chair again to be told I could not have time off and could not be transferred, returned to her service for a few days and told another resident on the service, then was dismissed home (first for a few days, now a week) because my PD heard that I was talking about it. I contacted HR only once I was sure that this was being entirely mishandled by my PD and chair and that I would potentially be disciplined. Because as someone mentioned, it is ridiculous that an attending can be physically aggressive with a resident and not be suspended, while the resident gets suspended for talking about it.
Amongst the other things I am preparing for in my return meeting are that they will force me to sign something like a confidentiality agreement, or some other disciplinary document that retrospectively constructs a pattern of unprofessional behavior prior to the incident that would justify disciplinary action such as probation. If you haven't heard of something called a "peer review" and possible abuse of this legal process in hospital settings, I suggest you look it up.
So if I fall off the radar at some point, you can assume that confidentiality agreement has been signed but at least I have kept my job...
You should not sign anything in the meeting if possible. If they ask you to sign something, you should request 48 hours to review it. Even if it looks benign, request 24-48 hours to review it. You should not sign away your right to grieve whatever decision they are making, speak to anyone, etc. If they threaten you -- i.e. "if you don't sign this, you're fired", you'll need to decide what to do. I'd still push for 24 hours to review it. It they threaten you like that, they are probably in the wrong and trying to make you make a bad decision. But if they follow through with their threat, although you'd be "right", you'll have a long legal battle ahead of you.
I quoted these for a reason. What was said here about meetings and signing documents, doesn't come up enough in these situations.
To summarize, based on what I have read in this thread:
1) Contact police immediately.
2) Obtain attorney.
3) Gather evidence.
4) Don't talk to ANYONE working at the hospital about ANY troubles. I would say not to talk about anything beyond pleasantries at work as a general rule.
5) You can talk to HR, PD, APDs, and Chiefs, but they're sort of like the police. You would think they'd be on your side, until they're not.
6) Carefully consider what you sign. Keep track of all meetings, notes, etc.
7) Never fight the man.
With only months to graduation, the program actually has little incentive to keep you, as it would be less disruptive to the program to let you go and to only have to pull on the schedule a few months. You don't become more invincible the closer to graduation you are. If I had been assaulted, I would have done steps 1-4, because you can do that very *quietly*, and as a form of ass covering you have to do, in case the batterer does similar ass covering for their wrongdoing. I likely would have made it to 5), but it would depend on so many factors. I would make it clear that I thought the program should be aware of it for their own sake. That besides a duty to report, I was only interested in moving forward with my training, smiley face intact! In some sense, I would have reported it to cover my ass, not make waves. How to do one vs the other, well, residency isn't really about winning.
NDA signed under distress can't be seen as valid.
Pretty much all NDAs are signed while under distress. Duress OTOH, that's a legal thing. By the time there's an NDA involved, at least one party has a lawyer, and the thing is probably going to stick. Assume all NDAs will be valid, no matter how much distress you're feeling. Hence why I quoted aPD's advice about really thinking twice about what you sign. And my own advice that you shouldn't sign something like that without having a lawyer of your own read it first.
I don't see how the OP would be violating this NDA we're all presuming exists if she doesn't reveal any identifying information about the program.
Ask a lawyer how much they think you should say about your NDA after you get one. Less than you think.
For folks not in the know, "NDA" is "nondisclosure agreement". When you hear that a "confidential settlement" was achieved, an NDA was signed. That means, break it, and the settlement is void (and you have to give the money back). Totally unrelated, but, near the end of the movie "Spy Game", there is a scene about signing the NDA.
Worse than just giving money back, is that it opens you up to all sorts of legal action being taken against you. You could be sued, for sure. Plus a lot of NDAs are bidirectional, which is why they're not just something you sign under distress, but to make some distress go away. Without the NDA the other party can continue slandering you.
What irks me is that the OP is, presumably, new to these new, miserable experiences. As such, s/he is being bullied - as if his/her program is being SO magnanimous, that they would "let" him/her go with the NDA, when the OP is 100% in the right. In reality, they KNOW they are wrong, but they are, in fact, bullying the OP into accepting it. However, since the OP is "green" at this, s/he doesn't know how strong is his/her position. It is unfortunate that the OP didn't have a strong orator in his/her corner, such as an attorney, or, to be honest, someone like me, who would have leveled the playing field. It's confusing to be told you're wrong, when YOU are the one wronged.
This long screed is just my opinion. However, if the OP can just "get the hell out of Dodge", I'll count that as a "win".
I get it's your opinion. Sadly, the OP was never in a strong position, because they are a resident. "They can always hurt you more." An attorney in your corner is like getting some lubricant to go with the total ass-****ing. It's not for nothing, clearly.
Unless you're sleeping with your patients or doing drugs/alcohol at work, losing your license is almost impossible. Gross negligence can lead to limitations on your license, but even that is really unusual in most states.
A board report is stressful, but mostly it costs you time and money to respond to and nothing comes of it.
Depends on what type of license you currently hold and what state you're in. Granted, you're not wrong that it's difficult to lose your full license. But you do overlook that anything mental health related can lead to onerous consequences for keeping your license, and that isn't very unusual at all.
If a program or hospital really is malignant and looking to slander you, tying whatever papertrail they've invented about your "professionalism" and "teamplayer-ness" or similar garbage to what I read OP was dealing with, to claims about your mental health, well, that could dovetail well for them. People think because of the ADA it would be difficult to use your health to fire you, and it's not. Or that it would be difficult for a board to sanction you or make it almost impossible to keep your license, but it's not. That sort of mental-health fueled board stuff can follow you to every state you go to. Or not. It depends where.
More than one doc on this board has said to beware if your program wants to send you to a psychiatrist or occ med for that kind of thing.
Maybe all the rest of the board trouble that comes from what Raryn has mentioned ain't no thing like all of the above. I could believe that. OTOH, if it's anything at all like the witch hunt that mental health allegations can ensue, it can be more than a hoop jump formality.
