Department of Psychiatry
McGill Psychiatry Residency Program Policy for Patient Information/Email/ Texting/Pager/Social Media
The program wishes to ensure that residents are safely communicating with their patients and that they are medico-legally protected regarding the tools they use to communicate. In order to address this concern, the program has adopted the following rules, approved by the Residency Program Committee:
- The program discourages the use of email and text with patients. Texts with supervisors about patients should not include full patient names or their RAMQ.
- The program prohibits interacting with patients via social media; it is also prohibited to post enactment or simulation of a patient’s case on social media.
- The program prohibits the use of social media to discuss/post patients/cases.
- The program prohibits the dissemination of patient information, including patient charts, outside the hospital. This includes dissemination via personal computers, personal USB keys, personal emails (unless files are encrypted/password protected) and cameras or recording devices required in the context of psychotherapy supervision.
- Psychotherapy patients should not have residents’ personal coordinates (cell phone number, email, etc.). Appointments should be made using residents’ office phone/voicemail (with a message to go to the ER in case of emergency) and/or available administrative assistants. The last option should be a pager. If residents provide their pager number, patients must be given clear instructions to contact them between 9:00 and 5:00 during the week only and to go to the ER in case of emergency.
- In addition to being students of the university, residents and fellows are physicians, and are therefore governed by the policies of professional bodies, such as the Collège des médecins du Québec, the Canadian Medical Association (Code of Ethics) and by policies of the Faculty of Medicine. These include the Faculty of Medicine Code of Conduct and the disciplinary procedures as outlined in the McGill University Student Rights and Responsibilities Handbook. Violation of any of these standards or policies may constitute improper conduct or unprofessional behaviour.
Any violation of these rules will be discussed at the Competence Committee and could lead to professional probation.
Relationship with Industry
Guidelines of the McGill Psychiatry Residency Program on interaction between residents and the pharmaceutical industry
- Education
- Residents and staff need to familiarize themselves with the updated program guidelines regarding relationships/interactions with the industry.
- Curricula should include teaching on:
- An approach to bioethical issues
- Industry–physician interactions
- Industry–patient interactions, including the interests of marketing by the industry
- Evidence-based medicine and appraisal of treatment claims
- Continuing Medical Education (CME) survival skills (e.g., identify the sponsor, identify speaker, his/her affiliations, and past presentations)
- Training on interaction with pharmaceutical representatives (PRs)
- Training should occur early in the residency.
- Residents should never be put in a situation where they are expected to interact with PRs. Residents are discouraged from engaging in such interactions.
- Information regarding pharmaceutical agents should be obtained only during the course of clinical supervision, hospital-based teaching, and centralised teaching.
- Fundraising, travel scholarships, textbooks, and other educational material
- Individual residents training in our program and/or the MPRA are strictly prohibited from receiving any source of funding, and/or gifts, and/or medical samples from PRs or companies for any activities that are part of their training.
- Any funding, gifts, and/or medical samples received from PRs or companies outside of residency training must be disclosed to the program office.
- Meals
- The program discourages residents from accepting any meals paid for by pharmaceutical companies both during and outside training duties.
- Presentations to residents (invited speakers, lunch rounds, teleconferences)
- Residents are discouraged from attending any industry funded/supported event including journal clubs, lunch rounds, and grand rounds.
- The program strongly urges each training site to ensure that educational activities offered within their site are vetted regarding industry involvement and that attempts are made to direct residents only to educational activities that have no industry involvement.
- All presentations to residents should include a disclosure of any financial interest or affiliation with commercial goods/organizations that may have a direct or indirect interest in the subject matter of the presentation.
- Residents need to be familiar with counter-detailing activity whereby an industry associated speaker presents in concert with a presentation by the hospital pharmacist or expert staff who will critically evaluate the evidence for the presentation.
- Liaison with the industry
- PRs should be informed that they are not to interact with any trainee in our program.
- PRs should be informed of the objectives and contents of the residency program’s guidelines
- Research
Please follow the McGill Guidelines for Avoiding Conflicts of Interest in Relations between Faculty Members and Industry, which states the following:
Students (S) and residents (R) should not solicit nor accept funds for research from Industry. Funding for research by S/R should generally be provided via the residents’ supervisor, research-funding agency, hospital, or university.
Relationships between Supervisors and Residents
There are no formal rules regarding romantic relationships between residents and supervisors. The program discourages any romantic relationship between trainees and supervisors. However, if this were to occur the RPC has approved the following guidelines:
- In order to avoid possible abuse of authority or intimidation of residents, the program asks to be informed, as soon as possible, of any romantic relationship between residents in our program and supervisors/attendings in our department (psychiatrists).
- Residents need to inform the program (training director and program director) and supervisors/attendings need to inform the training director and/or their chief.
- A supervisor/attending dating a resident in our program should never be in an evaluating situation and/or clinical supervisory role of said resident either during and/or after their relationship ends for the length of the resident’s training.
Faculty of Medicine
Faculty of Medicine policies and procedures can be found on the following website: http://www.mcgill.ca/pgme/current-trainees/policies-procedures
It is imperative that residents read the following policies through the same link:
- Assessment and Promotion in Postgraduate Residency Programs
- Supervision Policy for Undergraduate and Postgraduate Medical Trainees in the Clinical Team