by Kevin M. Sanders

This week OU-COM introduced something new — an honor code — to its first- and second-year students. With the introduction of the honor code, the college is no longer proctoring examinations. Students are expected to practice honest and professional behavior — just as physicians who are in practice are required to do, said Dean Jack Brose, D.O. During two separate two-hour sessions sponsored by Student Government, Brose and faculty and staff members met with each class in Irvine 194 to discuss the code and answer questions concerning it.

The purpose of the code, say OU-COM officials, is to promote ethical and professional standards of personal conduct and to establish the habits of honesty and professional accountability in OU-COM students.

The introduction of the honor code also further extends a cornerstone of college’s adult education model — training self-motivated, self-disciplined learners.

Encouraging ethical behavior and professional conduct, said Brose, is consistent with the Osteopathic Oath that students swear when becoming osteopathic physicians.

“Patients will expect that you are policing yourself, that you are responsible for your own behavior — for being honest and acting with integrity,” said Brose. “And your fellow physicians will expect the same thing.”

“One of the definitions of a profession is that it establishes its own standards and enforces those standards. That’s what defines us as a profession.”

Brose said that as a medial school it is important to demonstrate to the public that the physicians it produces are willing to take personal responsibility for their actions — and the actions of the physicians that they are in practice with.

This responsibility is not merely academic.

A member of the state medical board pointed out, said Brose, that if during the course of an investigation of a physician the board found that another physician was aware of the wrongdoing and didn’t report it, it might not only suspend the license of the offending physician, it also might suspend the license of the physician who didn’t report it.

The honor code models this same expectation of OU-COM students, said Brose.

“Probably what’s going through your mind right now is, ‘How can I possibly turn in my buddy who’s sitting next to me?’”

“Well, fast forward a few years from now and your best friend is in practice with you or an intern with you or a resident with you.

“You see him or her doing something wrong or cheating in some way — altering a progress note or inappropriately prescribing a drug. What are you going to do? Are you going to say I can’t possibly turn them in because they’re my friend?

“We can’t shelter unethical or inappropriate practices as a profession,” said Brose.

“We want — from day one in medical school — to establish professional behaviors. Behaviors that are expected and required as practicing physicians.”

This was the paramount purpose of establishing OU-COM’s honor code, he said.

Brose stressed that during the course of this year that the code would be reviewed and revised as necessary. Students as well as faculty would serve on an honor council that would deal with infractions and be a part of the process of review and revision of the code.

In addressing second-year students, Brose said that he realized they would bear a two-fold burden with the introduction of the code: 1) of having completed a year of medical school without the code and 2) of being responsible for students you have befriended, as well as yourself.

“We know that it is particularly hard for you because you know the person next to you. For this reason, first-years don’t have to wrestle with this as much as you,” he said.

“But I can’t think of a better class to help us work through this, and I appreciate your willingness to do this.”