By John Ryan
Interns are often caught by surprise when concerns are raised about their conduct or performance with them.
As an intern you will be subject to a level of scrutiny about your conduct and your performance that you will most likely never have experienced before.
Complaints and feedback can be made and dealt with informally, and formally. Here’s what you need to know about your rights, and what to do if you receive negative feedback or a complaint.
Who is doing the scrutiny?
Everyone you interact with will be looking at your conduct and your performance. Your conduct both at work and out of work will be scrutinised.
At work your conduct will be scrutinised by nurses, other interns, registrars, specialists, patients, patient families, hospital administration and any other employees of the hospital and even visitors to the hospital – everyone involved either knowingly or unknowingly in monitoring your ability to meet the requirements to obtain general registration.
Your conduct out of work and especially your social media will be scrutinised by your work colleagues and hospital administration, and even patients and members of the public and this can be used as evidence of misconduct.
In short – everything you say and do will be the subject of some form of scrutiny!
Conduct and performance issues that may lead to complaints
Anyone can make a complaint about your conduct. Common complaints include:
Aggressive language or acts
Sexual harassment
Sexist or racist language
Discriminatory conduct
Insensitive language or acts
Dismissive language or acts
Non-compliance with hospital rules.
Common performance issues can include the following:
Taking too long to do a task
Poor clinical knowledge
Not completing tasks
Unexplained absences from work
Poor time management.
Informal complaints and feedback
Informal feedback is verbal and not always recorded or lodged in the system.
Some performance issues can be dealt with informally.
An informal process is to ensure that you are made aware that there are concerns about your performance, that the concerns are clearly outlined to you and that you are given a reasonable opportunity to address those concerns.
If needed, we are here to support you – email us at [email protected]
Formal complaints and feedback
All concerns relating to an intern’s conduct and any performance issues where “despite all reasonable practicable interventions by the Health Service, the Doctor is unable to fulfil all or part of their job requirements to a satisfactory level”, (Clause 13.2 Doctor In Training Agreement 2022) must be dealt with formally.
The Enterprise Agreement has very clear processes that must be followed whenever an intern is alleged to have engaged in misconduct or is alleged to be underperforming.
A formal process has two parts.
The first part of the process requires that the Health Service must:
Advise the intern of the conduct or performance concerns in writing
Provide the intern with all material which forms the basis of the concern
Provide the intern with a reasonable opportunity to respond to the alleged concerns
Meet with the intern
Allow the intern to be represented at all times, including by an AMA/ASMOF official
Take reasonable steps to investigate the intern’s response.
The second part of the process only occurs if and after the Health Service has determined that misconduct or poor performance has been established.
In performance matters the Health Service can place the intern on a performance management plan, which must be in writing. The Health Service must provide the intern reasonable opportunity to address the concerns over a reasonable time.
In conduct matters, once the Health Service has found that misconduct has occurred the Health Service must then decide whether any disciplinary action is warranted. If disciplinary action is warranted, then the Health Service can take a range of actions:
Informal counselling
Formal counselling in writing
Written warning
Termination of employment.
The type of disciplinary action should reflect the seriousness of the misconduct.
Nothing in the Discipline process set out in the Enterprise Agreement prevents a Health Service or the person making the allegation from reporting the alleged misconduct to any external body such as police or AHPRA.
What you can do if you receive a written notification
If you receive any written notification of allegations of misconduct or poor performance, then the Health Service considers the matter to be significant. Treat it accordingly.
We recommend seeking advice as soon as possible and before you respond or attend any meeting about the alleged misconduct or poor performance.
Click here to learn more about your DiT EA.
And if needed, we are here to support you – email us at [email protected]
John Ryan is a Senior Workplace Relations Advisor at AMA Victoria and Industrial Officer at Australian Salaried Medical Officers Federation (ASMOF) Victoria.