Conflict of Interest Policy in Student Assessment

Individuals assessing a student should not have a real or perceived conflict of interest (COI) that may result in a positive or negative bias in the completion of assessments and grading.

 

All courses, course directors, and faculty in the Whiddon COM

 

Assessment: A tool used to measure a student’s performance related to their knowledge, skills, and/or behaviors.

Grade: A measure of overall performance in a completed course or clerkship that will appear in an official student transcript.

 

4.1 Faculty members should not complete an assessment on a student or submit a grade if a conflict of interest exists between the faculty member and the specific student.

 

4.2 Examples of conflicts of interest include the following:

 

4.2.1 Serving as a faculty advisor, coach, or mentor to the student for career development, personal development, or research/scholarly work

 

4.2.2 Being a family remember of or related to the student

 

4.2.3 Serving as a healthcare provider to the student

 

4.3 Students should disclose any conflicts of interest to course or clerkship directors.

 

4.4 Faculty and students are recommended to contact the Associate Dean for Medical Education, or designee, to determine if a conflict of interest exists when needed.

 

5.1 The Division of Medical Education, course directors, and clerkship directors will provide education to their faculty and students to notify course leadership if a conflict of interest is present so that alternative clinical or grading assignments can be made in advance.

 

5.2 The following statement will be added to applicable assessments of students:

 

5.2.1 Please note if you have a conflict of interest that would prevent you from assessing this student. Examples include being a faculty advisor/mentor/coach, being a family member, and/or being in a provider-patient relationship.

5.3 M3 Competency Based Evaluations (CBE)

 

5.3.1 M3 CBE’s will be set to "Review and Release" in the student evaluation platform.

 

5.3.2 Clerkship directors and/or clerkship phase coordinators will review and verify no conflict of interest has been noted prior to releasing the CBEs to a student.

 

5.3.3 If a conflict of interest is noted, follow-up with the faculty member will occur and an alternative appropriate faculty member will be identified to complete the necessary assessment.

 

5.3.4 If an alternative faculty member cannot be identified, then the course/clerkship director, or their designee, will facilitate and complete the assessment with stakeholder(s) input.

 

5.4 M3 Student Final Clerkship Grade

 

5.4.1 Clerkship directors and/or clerkship phase coordinators review and verify no conflict of interest noted before completing and/or releasing final clerkship evaluations of a student.

 

5.4.2 If a conflict of interest for the clerkship director is noted, then the assistant clerkship director will complete and submit the final clerkship grade of a student instead of the clerkship director.

 

5.5 M4 Student Final Course Grades

 

5.5.1 If a conflict of interest is marked as "yes", then the grading platform will close the evaluation and notify the M4 coordinator.

 

5.5.2 If the conflict of interest is confirmed, follow-up with the faculty member would be required and an alternative appropriate faculty member will be identified to complete the necessary assessment.

 

5.5.3 In the event an alternative faculty member cannot be identified, then the course director, or designee if the conflict of interest is with the course director, will facilitate and complete the evaluation with stakeholder input 

 

Division of Medical Education and Course Directors

 

N/A