The McGill Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences is committed to cultivating a safe, supportive and stimulating learning environment that promotes learner vitality and recognizes excellence in teaching. As such, any mistreatment toward learners, colleagues or patients, whether intentional or unintentional, is not acceptable. Mistreatment can include belittlement, intimidation, humiliation and hostility, as well as physical or psychological harassment or discrimination. A more detailed description of mistreatment is provided here.
The Office for Respectful Environments (ORE) receives, responds to and monitors reports of mistreatment in the Faculty's learning environments. Reports may be submitted by undergraduate medical students, postgraduate residents/fellows, and other clinical trainees. The ORE provides a safe environment for learners to report their concerns and to share, in a confidential manner, the experiences that prompted the report to the ORE. The process also permits teachers to understand and respond to such reports and work with the ORE to resolve concerns in a fair and collegial manner. Reports of mistreatment may also be received by the UGME Office, the PGME Office and by other members of the faculty: these should be forwarded to the ORE. The ORE also works to meet University and Faculty goals of maintaining respectful learning environments that reflect the principles set out in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences’ Code of Conduct and expected levels of professionalism. The Director of the ORE will produce annual updates for quality improvement purposes and reports for learners and Faculty members.
The ORE is involved in the following activities:
- Maintaining the ORE website and mistreatment webform
- Triaging mistreatment webform submissions of the Faculty's learning environments concerns and complaints
- Policy development
- Reporting to Faculty and learner leadership
- Collaboration with educational programs and Faculty Development
- Collaboration with the Communications Office to ensure transparency
- Data reporting for the purposes of accreditation and quality improvement
- Making recommendations to improve the system of reporting incidents of mistreatment in the Faculty's learning environments
Should you choose to submit an incident report, please explore your reporting options here. If you would like to make an appointment with a Wellness Consultant/Advisor, please do so via the Office of Medical Learner Affairs (School of Medicine) or the WELL Office (Ingram School of Nursing, School of Physical and Occupational Therapy, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders).