OLEM categorizes mistreatment as:

• General mistreatment
• Sexual mistreatment
• Mistreatment based on race/ethnicity/Indigeneity
• Sexual orientation/gender identity mistreatment
• Ableist mistreatment

General mistreatment refers to public humiliation, disrespectful behavior, threatening harm, physical harm or inappropriate favours.

Sexual mistreatment refers to a range of behaviours including, but not limited to, sexist remarks/assumptions, denied opportunities, unwanted sexual touch to rape or soliciting, coercing and/or requesting sexual acts in exchange for opportunities to advance professionally.

Mistreatment involving racist, xenophobic and/or anti-Indigenous language or behavior refers to denied opportunities, subjection to offensive terms/names, lower evaluation or offensive remarks about religion, culture and/or Indigeneity.

Sexual orientation/gender identity mistreatment refers to denied opportunities, subjection to offensive terms/names, lower evaluation or offensive remarks about sexual orientation and/or gender identity.

Ableist mistreatment refers to denied opportunities, subjection to offensive terms/names, lower evaluation or offensive remarks about physical, psychological, visible and/or invisible disabilities.

Mistreatment can be committed by faculty/supervisors, peers (e.g., junior/senior learner), non-physician hospital employees and contractors and/or patients and families.

If you are a learner in Physician Assistant Education Program (PAEP), Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) or Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME), you can access OLEM by submitting a concern via our online form or by email. If you choose to submit a concern confidentially, you will need to provide an email or phone number. We will then contact you within two business days. Should you reach out via email, an OLEM representative will send you a fillable copy of our data form and request that you fill it out before meeting us, if you wish.

If, at initial contact, it is determined that meeting with the program coordinator and/or faculty navigator would cause a conflict of interest (based on the identity or position of you or the respondent), the concern will be reviewed and assigned to the most appropriate educational lead (e.g., PAEP assistant dean, UGME associate dean or PGME associate dean) to manage in accordance with the OLEM framework.

OLEM will meet with you in person or in a secure virtual environment, depending on your preference. Standard practice, pending your permission, is to have two representatives from OLEM meet with you – usually OLEM’s program coordinator and the office’s faculty lead. One representative documents the meeting and the other leads the discussion. If you wish, you can have a support person present when meeting with OLEM. Please don’t hesitate to ask us for assistance in linking you with a support person, if desired.

Learners have several options when meeting with OLEM, including debriefing, disclosing, resolving and/or preparing to submit a report to an intake office. Please note, if you have submitted a concern anonymously, no follow-up meeting will take place. However, you are welcome to change your submission from “anonymous” to “confidential” after submitting a concern. This can be done by contacting OLEM directly or by submitting a new form.

Debrief

This option is for learners who wish to discuss an experience they have had, to ascertain whether it qualifies as mistreatment. The purpose of debriefing is to discuss the situation without necessarily being required to provide identifying details, to seek support and learn about their options going forward.

Disclose

Learners can disclose details about an incident of or situation involving learner mistreatment to OLEM, in as much detail as they wish. They may want the experience be documented and filed with OLEM alone or they may wish to discuss options for seeking resolution.

Prepare for a report via a university intake office

Learners who have approached OLEM can also choose to submit a formal complaint to a university intake office at any time, even if they have filed a concern and/or sought resolution with the OLEM office. If learners wish, OLEM can offer support and guidance with approaching one of McMaster’s intake offices. These intake offices are authorized to undertake formal investigations if they feel it is warranted, which can include seeking further information from others in the learning environment, bringing in respondents and witnesses and taking other steps to investigate. They also have the capacity to sanction individuals under university processes and policies.

For Undergraduate Medical Education (UGME) and Physician Assistant Education Program (PAEP) learners, the four intake offices for submitting formal reports are:

• Professionalism Office, Faculty of Health Sciences
• Human Rights and Dispute Resolution (HRDR) Program, Equity and Inclusion Office
• Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office
• Student Case Management

Postgraduate Medical Education (PGME) learners have access to four intake offices for formal reporting:

• Professionalism Office, Faculty of Health Sciences
• Human Rights and Dispute Resolution (HRDR) Program, Equity and Inclusion Office
• Sexual Violence Prevention and Response Office
• Employee and Labour Relations (only for fellows who are employed at McMaster University)

Exceptions to confidentiality may arise if, as members of the McMaster University community as defined under the Discrimination & Harassment Policy (PDF) and the Sexual Violence Policy (PDF), we become aware of concerns that are egregious, pose imminent safety concerns and/or are required to be reported as the above-mentioned policies dictate, or as another college mandates. In the event that a breach of confidentiality is required, OLEM will bring the concern in question to the appropriate leadership, such as the undergraduate dean, postgraduate dean and physician assistant dean, departmental leadership (e.g., chair) and/or hospital leadership (e.g., dhief of practice). The learner will be informed, supported and kept as anonymous as possible through the entire process. In communicating concerns, OLEM will only disclose what is minimally required and do everything possible to keep the learner unidentifiable and protected.

On an annual basis, OLEM will provide an annual report to the vice dean of education and the leads of the three educational programs that OLEM supports. The report will outline anonymized data about the number of concerns that have come forward, divided by educational program (if possible) and into broad categories regarding type of mistreatment and resolution status. No individual identifying data will be included. As the office grows, OLEM may be able to provide relevant, high-level data based on concerns by department, depending on the number of concerns brought forward to the office, as long as it is possible to maintain confidentiality.

At this stage, OLEM reviews appropriate supports available for the learner (e.g., do they have support, have they been in contact with Resident Affairs and Student Affairs or another support regarding the Physician Assistant Education Program, or can we put them in contact with the relevant supports).

We then review the data in the information form detailing the concern and discuss any further information required, such as whether the complainant has reached out to any other person and/or office in the university and if they have already submitted a concern, either anonymously or confidentially, to our office about the situation in question in the past.

Finally, we ascertain the learner’s desired outcomes and develop a plan for relaying the details of their concern to the appropriate parties.

OLEM follows up with learners to review next steps and to determine whether they would like to hold a second meeting once they have considered their options.

Steps to address and resolve the concern could include sending a de-identified letter to the respondent’s supervisor, as well as the respective program director and/or the Faculty of Health Sciences leadership. Steps to resolve concerns are determined on a case-by-case basis. OLEM typically requests that the recipient(s) of such communiques confirm that action has been taken to resolve the matter within 30 days.

Once we have received confirmation that the given matter has been sufficiently addressed, we will contact the learner to notify them. At this point, we consider the matter to be closed. However, the learner is welcome to follow up with us at a later date if they want to provide additional information or request additional actions.