New policies aim to stop surgeons from performing poorly

The purpose of the Association of Thoracic Surgeons is to conduct disrespectful behavior at its meetings with the new policy of respecting academic discourse.

When the Association of Thoracic Surgeons held its annual meeting in January, the moderator discovered a new policy on podiums. That was STS’ publicly released its policy of respecting academic discourse, which was adopted last August. The policy is similar to a disruptive behavior guide called Member Guide, which was initiated by the European Association for Cardiac Surgery (EACTS), and was launched last fall to promote a respectful, inclusive and unbiased environment in its meetings and events.

Not surprisingly, given the high pressure, high stress, and multiple special environments in which they work at work, surgeons are more likely to report on non-professional behavior than non-surgical medical professionals. JAMA Network Open. According to the study, most of this disrespectful behavior is expressed verbally, such as calling colleagues “boriginal cows” to remind surgeons to follow appropriate protocols.

According to an article by Medscape, while professional association meetings are not the stress cooker environment for surgical kits, these bad behaviors can span. Similarly, although women remain a small part of the STS conference’s School of Cardiac Thoracic Surgery (17%), which is only 2% compared to the turn of the century. Black and Hispanic physicians are also small (3% and 5% respectively), but the proportion of the industry increases.

As the industry diversifies, hidden unconscious biases are now becoming increasingly obvious, leading to disrespectful behaviors such as interruptions. According to Medscape articles, women are more likely than men to be interrupted and addressed by inappropriate titles at previous STS sessions.

“The best way to mitigate these differences is to keep everyone at the same level of expertise,” Mara Antonoff, MD, MD, MD, Houston, who chairs the STS Policy Working Group, told Medscape.

STS’ new policies include examples of destructive behavior, including everything from verbal abuse and intimidation to microaggression and gaslight.

Other key elements of the policy include:

• Participants are encouraged to use appropriate titles such as “Dr.” for people with a PhD and “Mr” or “Mr” for others. It also encourages the use of inclusive, gender-neutral and noble language in speeches. These two aspects are included to help make the environment more enthusiastic about the increasingly diverse cardiothoracic surgery community.
• Encourage active participation of those who may have felt deterred or marginalized before, such as young members and underrepresented groups.
• Overview expectations for professional behavior, prevent bullying, offensive language, and other destructive behaviors.

The idea is to set basic rules to promote more collaborative learning and individual learning environments and to provide mechanisms to deal with instances of non-professional behavior.

While the jury is still discussing how the new policy will change behavior, the initial response to the policy is primarily positive, especially among younger members. STS plans to formally evaluate its implementation at future meetings to ensure that behavioral improvements are maintained and strengthened over time

You may also be interested in…

Exclusive: How Claire Lester bridges the generation gap

How the event industry copes with the DEI rebound

Exclusive: Talk to Cvent’s Stephen Cutchins