Sexual harassment from an attending

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peppy

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  1. Attending Physician
Does anyone have any advice for an intern/resident who is dealing with sexual harassment from an attending? I am friends with someone who unfortunately is dealing with this right now.
Does anyone have any advice on the best way to make sure that the intern/resident is protected from retribution when she makes a complaint about the harassment? Any thoughts on how this person can protect herself from looking like she's just a disgruntled resident making excuse for poor rotation performance?
Thanks for any advice!
 
make the report before any evaluations come in. And put that report in some written recordable form. So if you say something to a program director verbally, e-mail them re-iterating what your complaint was so that you have something in writing for a later date.
 
make the report before any evaluations come in. And put that report in some written recordable form. So if you say something to a program director verbally, e-mail them re-iterating what your complaint was so that you have something in writing for a later date.

This. Paper trail, and speaking up before it's too late.

Also, keep a copy of any inappropriate emails, texts, or text pages (if any).
 
I am afraid that the OP's friend is right to worry about a complaint being turned against her - it's a standard tactic against any employee with a complaint.

She needs to put together as detailed a time line of the harassment as possible - for each incident, put down time, place, what happened, any documentation, any witnesses. Keep it updated. As a defensive measure and to keep in reserve, try to work out what actions or incidents on the part of the OP's friend might be used in retaliation and what the response might be, again setting this out in full in documentation. If something is raised in retaliation, it is much better to have an immediate answer rather than being blindsided by it. The OP's friend needs to have an immediate response ready to whatever might come her way as a complaint against her.

The OP and her friend need to work out who in the program hierarchy is going to be on her side. Start with those who have an organisational role supporting residents - Chief Resident? Resident Adviser? Union official if a union is recognised by the program (even if the OP's friend is not a member, she may be able to join up on the spot, rather than needing to be a member before the trouble started - unions are much nicer to their members/customers than insurance companies are). Go to that person with the timeline document and discuss what the best approach is. What does the OP's friend want - the harassment to stop, presumably, but anything else? What does the resident's contract say about this - what standards of behaviour is the resident entitled to expect, what formal procedures are in place for a complaint?

If there is no one in the program who is formally on the resident's side, find the person in the hierarchy who has the responsibility for managing these issues, and have a meeting with them, making clear that the meeting is with them in their capacity as the person dealing with harassment issues. Any meeting, take someone along to be a witness/take notes. Also note phonecalls (time, who with, short précis of what was said) and keep any documentation.

Sometimes the least confrontational approach is the best place to start - a private word from a person in the hierarchy to the harasser (eg (you may not realise, your actions unwelcome, if you stop it, it won't go further), then if that does not work, escalate to a formal complaint.

It sounds as if the problem is serious enough that the OP wants/needs it to stop asap. If that is the case, she needs to put her offence and defence in place immediately, and then make an informal or formal approach to the hierarchy without waiting for the end of rotation, etc.

Good luck.
 
Papertrail for everything....and also, start being flawless in all her professional areas. Never be late, never be less than absurdly professional to anyone, avoid anything that could be misconstrued in any way...and assume someone might try to twist a circumstance against her.

It might not happen but organizations can be vindictive and your friend needs to make sure they are above reproach during this.
 
This happened to someone I know during residency--it was a clear cut violation/sexual harassment. She immediately contacted the most senior person in the program, who advised her to report it to HR. She did, and never suffered adverse consequences--in fact, became chief resident. I can't say anything happened to the attending--don't really know. She was never harassed again though.
 
Tell your friend to go straight to HR and discuss their issue. HR's job is to protect the hospital from work related lawsuits and they have a tremendous amount of power when it comes to persuading staff to change their behavior in a hurry. If this person has a history of this type of behavior and has been reported before you can bet that this may push them one step closer to getting a whipping from the hospital and even having to defend yourself to the licensing board. As far as retaliation goes, my experience is that the person who reported the incident will not be screwed with by anyone with any sense of self preservation. Most states have very detailed whistle blower protection laws and now you are involving the state which no hospital wants. It is a harsh road to take but trying to work it out privately, going to chief/pd/chair or just ignoring the problem and hoping it goes away are just going to make things worse for you.
 
sorry you're going this ordeal. like everyone said above get dates, time lines, witness statements, security tapes of "harassment", texts, emails, pages .....etc. i have 2 friends that went through something similar. both times the attendings were asked to leave. 1 was taken to the board and lost his license
 
I appreciate the advice! I think that speaking up is difficult for my friend because she is early in her career and she is afraid that since she doesn't have much of a reputation at the residency yet that people will not believe her. I appreciate all the encouragement you guys have given and I am hoping that I can use the advice here to help her before things get worse.
 
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I appreciate the advice! I think that speaking up is difficult for my friend because she is early in her career and she is afraid that since she doesn't have much of a reputation at the residency yet that people will not believe her. I appreciate all the encouragement you guys have given and I am hoping that I can use the advice here to help her before things get worse.

Also, remember that if you use the organization's email system (the .edu) to document this, they "own" all that, so s/he should "bcc" someone trustworthy or bcc to his/her own personal email account so there is an electronic record and paper copy of the email. I've seen it happen that email access is cut off then denial the email ever existed ensues. Also, be aware that If s/he bcc's or involves you, you will be expected to be a witness so be prepared if you're willing to do that. Otherwise recuse yourself.
 
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Also, remember that if you use the organization's email system (the .edu) to document this, they "own" all that, so s/he should "bcc" someone trustworthy or bcc to his/her own personal email account so there is an electronic record and paper copy of the email. I've seen it happen that email access is cut off then denial the email ever existed ensues. Also, be aware that If s/he bcc's or involves you, you will be expected to be a witness so be prepared if you're willing to do that. Otherwise recuse yourself.

Very good point.

Save screenshots with timestamps, print out hard copies, etc.
 
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Also, remember that if you use the organization's email system (the .edu) to document this, they "own" all that, so s/he should "bcc" someone trustworthy or bcc to his/her own personal email account so there is an electronic record and paper copy of the email. I've seen it happen that email access is cut off then denial the email ever existed ensues. Also, be aware that If s/he bcc's or involves you, you will be expected to be a witness so be prepared if you're willing to do that. Otherwise recuse yourself.
You know that doesn't work if you use a personal e-mail address because they save sent e-mails with times and days. you can use the function of getting told when e-mails are opened.
 
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