Unprofessional behaviour

Medical students are not registered with the GMC until qualification, but as a medical student you must be aware that you have responsibilities above those of other students because you are training to be a doctor and you will frequently come into contact with patients.

Behaviour or attitudes which are deemed by the School to be below a professional standard may prevent you from continuing your studies. We cannot give a full range of unacceptable behaviour but some of the more common examples include:

Cheating (a cheat may falsify research findings thereby endangering patients). Plagiarism and cheating in examinations are forms of dishonesty and if committed in University examinations are covered by University regulations. A medical student whose submitted work is found to have been plagiarised or who has cheated in medical school examinations, will be considered to have acted unprofessionally.

Racism (you must treat all patients equally irrespective of race, religion, gender or political view)

Theft (thieving suggests that the individual may take advantage of vulnerable patients)

Violence (there is no place for any form of violence either physical or verbal in a professional relationship irrespective of provocation)

Dishonesty when not considered a criminal offence, would be regarded as unprofessional and will not be tolerated

Intoxication (the doctor’s judgement will be affected). This includes alcohol, drug and other substance abuse.

Alcohol is widely used in UK society. It is impossible to advise how much alcohol consumption is considered inappropriate. The medical student must be responsible for his or her own alcohol intake. It is not necessarily the amount of alcohol taken that is the critical factor, but rather the behaviour induced by excessive alcohol. Violence as a result of alcohol, or any other form of intoxication, is always unacceptable. Intoxication will not be accepted as a valid excuse for abusive or other unacceptable behaviour.

Under no circumstances is alcohol to be consumed in hospitals. Students under the influence of alcohol who are found to be in “professional” contact with patients will not be tolerated. Driving, or other offences, committed under the influence of alcohol will also be viewed particularly seriously.

Recurrent and persistent alcohol abuse in medical students will have a significant impact on the student’s performance and ‘fitness to practise’ and such students need to be identified and offered help.

The University takes a particularly serious view of students involved in the supply or use of illegal drugs on or off University premises (see Section 7.3 of the University’s Taught Students Handbook) – found on the Website: http://www.leeds.ac.uk/aqst/