| Policy: | Conflict of Interest |
|---|---|
| Effective Date: | August 1st, 2024 |
| Revised Date: | July 1st, 2024 |
| Review Date: | August 2029 |
Policy and Procedure Statements
Preamble. The University of British Columbia’s (UBC) Midwifery Program (BMw) and its Internationally Educated Midwives Bridging Program (IEMBP) are jointly referred to as “UBC Midwifery” or the “Program”. UBC Midwifery follows all UBC regulatory requirements and applicable UBC policies.
Background. A conflict of interest is defined as “a situation in which a person, such as a public official, an employee, or a professional, has a private or personal interest sufficient to appear to influence the objective exercise of his or her official duties.1” There are many situations within the Program in which faculty, students, and preceptors may potentially have a conflict of interest. Awareness, appropriate planning, and intervention can prevent problems from developing.
Conflicts of interest include those situations which may provide students with access to confidential information about a midwifery practice or other students who have been in a practice, or impede, or potentially impede, the ability of a preceptor or faculty member to provide an unbiased opinion or assessment. A conflict of interest includes a perceived conflict of interest.
The midwifery community in British Columbia is relatively small. It is therefore important that the Program makes every effort to ensure that pre-existing relationships or knowledge do not bias the admission, education, or evaluation of an individual student or applicant, or the treatment of midwives and midwifery practices. Examples of relationships that may give rise to a potential conflict of interest may include, and should be disclosed:
- A relative or friend, or where a significant prior personal relationship exists.
- A prior or current caregiver or client.
- An employer or employee of the midwife or the midwife’s practice, including second attendants, administrators, and staff.
- An employee of any agency related to funding or governance of the midwife’s practice.
- Any circumstance that may be perceived as having influence over the fair and impartial evaluation of a student.
- 1https://ethics.ubc.ca/peoplemcdonaldconflict-htm/
Policy
Conflicts of Interest in Clinical Placements
Students and preceptors are required to notify the Clinical Placement Coordinator by email as soon as possible and no later than 3 days after the student’s name has been identified, if they believe there may be a potential or perceived conflict of interest. It is the responsibility of both preceptor and student to report any potential relationship that may fall into these categories, or others not yet described, whether either party feels that the relationship may or could compromise the ability of the preceptor to fairly assess the student.
Procedure. The Clinical Placement Coordinator will review potential conflicts on a case-by-case basis and bring any unclear cases to the Undergraduate Program Lead for discussion and decision.
In the event of a potential conflict of interest between tutor and student or preceptor, the tutor will discuss with the course lead and decide whether to assign the student to another tutor. If this is not possible a written disclosure to mitigate the potential or perceived conflict may be undertaken, and/or faculty will meet and decide the best course of action.
A formal offer of employment should NOT be given by a preceptor/ practice to a student at any time prior to midterm in Clerkship and will be viewed as creating a conflict of interest in providing a fair evaluation of the student’s performance.
Policy
Conflicts of Interest in Assessments
The student and instructor/clinical faculty are asked to advise the course lead where a perceived conflict of interest may exist in assessments (e.g. grading assignments or examining OSCEs), as soon as possible. Conflicts like this will be assessed on a case-by-case basis, and where a potential or perceived conflict is found, appropriate solutions will be determined by the Course Lead.
Procedure. In some communities, the number of midwives is very few. Therefore, in the interest of making assessments (like OSCEs) more accessible to students in distributed locations (Kelowna, Victoria, or Prince George, for example), the Program may be required to draw on the same pool of midwives to act as preceptors, skills instructors, and OSCE examiners. The Program expects clinical faculty to exhibit appropriate professional behavior and boundaries with students, which includes fair and unbiased assessment.
In cases where either a clinical faculty member or student expresses concern about a potential conflict of interest, a third party may join the assessment remotely, or the student may be required to relocate for these assessments.
Non-Compliance with the Conflict-of-Interest Policy: Should a conflict of interest be discovered to not have been appropriately identified to the Program; a review of the case will be completed by the Undergraduate Program Lead. Appropriate consequences will vary depending on the severity of the omission. Examples include but are not limited to, required re-take of OSCE examinations or removal from clinical practice.