Professionalism Feedback and Reporting

Undergraduate Affairs (UGA) is a resource for you. We are here to promote professionalism and professional behaviours and provide support and resources when trying to address unprofessional behaviours.

Overview

To support a just culture of professionalism, it is important that a system for shared accountability through the reporting of both professionalism accolades and concerns exists. Professionalism reporting is vital to:

  • Foster a culture of continuous learning;
  • Impact future behavioural choices;
  • Share in the responsibility of maintaining safe practices;
  • Ensure we meet our fiduciary responsibility to provide exceptional patient care;
  • And identify patterns of behaviour that require remediation.

It is important to recognize that professionalism achievements and concerns can occur anywhere. UGA has created web forms to be able to capture professionalism across the various environments that make up our School community (both in and out of the classroom) so that we can celebrate achievements and learn from lapses.

Report Processing

We encourage all PharmD students to report professionalism achievements and concerns they witness, no matter the setting.

Give Kudos:

If you experience or witness exceptional professional behaviours from any any PharmD student, you can submit an accolade. It is always nice to receive positive feedback and to be appreciated. This is how we build a healthy community of practice.

Professionalism achievements reported will receive acknowledgement from UGA within 7-10 working days of the submission as well as be tracked for future celebration, learning, and mentorship support.

Raise a professionalism concern:

If you experience or witness unprofessional behaviour from a PharmD student, please fill out and submit your concern through the online reporting system.

  • We will require a name and email address of the reporting party. As with the Ontario College of Pharmacists (OCP) reporting procedures, submissions cannot be made anonymously. Any submission without accurate and identifiable contact information will not be considered. Remember, professionalism is built on shared accountability.
  • Reports will be downloaded and reviewed by the UGA once a week and we will contact you within 7-10 working days to discuss your concern and implement next steps.

PharmD students can expect that:

  • Professionalism lapses reported will require follow-up with UGA as well as the possibility of supplemental remediation requirements (see Mentorship and Advising on Professionalism).

The PharmD student reports will be collected, tracked, and reviewed by the School’s Professionalism sub-committee for ongoing continual learning and discussion.

  • Any reports presented to the professionalism sub-committee or School community will be anonymized.
  • The Professionalism sub-committee will regularly provide updates to the School community on both successes and lessons learned in this space.
  • All reports will be filed with appropriate record keeping and confidentiality practices.

Role modeling

An important aspect of professionalism is role modeling. All members of Waterloo Pharmacy are aware of the principles and responsibilities of professionalism. It is an expectation that all members of our School community will demonstrate professional behaviour of what it means to be a professional and act professionally at all times.

Our goal is to build and maintain a psychologically safe learning environment. It is up to all of us to create and maintain our culture.

We will track and celebrate professionalism achievements to aid in mentorship and continue to grow our role modeling practices.

Mentoring and Advising on Professionalism

If an occurrence of exceptional professionalism achievement is reported, UGA will reach out to the PharmD student identified by:

  • Issuing a standard email message of acknowledgement and celebration of demonstrating professionalism in the program.
  • In the case of ongoing or repeated achievements, the student will be more broadly recognized for their success and be asked to serve as a mentor and/or advisor for other students, if they wish.

If an occurrence of unprofessional behaviour is reported, the UGA office will work with PharmD students identified by:

  • Issuing a standard email message to remind students of the expectations of professionalism in the program. Although this does not mean that the student is in trouble, this is intended to remind the student of the importance of professionalism within the program. This will also provide the opportunity for dialogue to better understand why the student is not meeting professionalism expectations and evaluate circumstances (personal/professional/academic/practice) that are deemed “of concern” for student success.
  • Beyond one occurrence, the student will meet with a pharmacy advisor to discuss an individualized mentorship plan which may involve any or a combination of the following:
    • Engaging in 1:1 mentoring meetings (either peer or faculty mentorship available)
    • Completing assigned readings or a project
    • Writing a reflection
    • Maintaining a portfolio
    • Taking an online module/course on professionalism
    • Referring the student to external resources

In the case of ongoing or repeated occurrences (more than two occurences or any one occurence which is deemed serious* in nature), the student, in collaboration with a member from the UGA office, will create a remediation plan which will have accountability checkpoints for the completion of this plan and will use a variety of the tactics mentioned in step 2.

*A serious professionalism concern will be reviewed by pharmacy leadership right away. If the concern is felt to be egregious (i.e. patient or learner safety is at risk) it may be referred to University policies for further proceedings: Policy 71 – Student Discipline or Policy 33 – Ethical Behaviour. If the event is not egregious but still serious in nature, then a remediation plan option will be considered right away.

Committee Oversight

The professionalism reporting and tracking process was developed by the School’s professionalism sub-committee in 2024 which is a sub-committee formed under the provision of the School’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee. The Committee consists of faculty, staff, and student representatives. The Committee is chaired by the Director of Admissions and Undergraduate Affairs with representation and the support of the Associate Director, Curriculum and the Associate Director, Assessment.

Questions? Please email the Undergraduate Affairs Office at pharmacy.advisor@uwaterloo.ca.