- How to launch a successful career in optometry
- A voice for independent doctors
- Are you prepared?
- How to fill your staffing needs
- The latest on AI and optometry
- More courses, more uses, more impact: Why more AOA member doctors, staff are turning to AOA EyeLearn
- Master paraoptometric certification exam prep with AOA’s study resources
- 5 things every office needs to practice full-scope optometry
- Why thriving practices are prioritizing retirement plans
- What happened to the FTC’s noncompete ban?
- Keeping your practice (and finances) safe
- Is your exam chair ADA compliant?
- 2.9% Medicare cut, broadly panned, looms over 2025 as advocates press Congress
- How to navigate political conversations in your practice
- Making the grade
- Does your malpractice insurance provider measure up?
- The power of delegation
- New technologies shaping optometry’s future
- How AOAExcel makes your life easier
- Next-gen optometry’s focus on independent practice
- Inferiority complexity?
- Is your staff connected? How peer connections benefit practices
- Protecting patient privacy when a clinical observer visits
- Does your practice do in-house billing? Here’s something to know
- Where to start? The tools and resources to leave a positive impact on your patients and community
- AOA boosts support for optometrists rocked by Change Healthcare cyberattack
- Be aware of new classification of employee vs. independent contractor from labor department
- Why optometrists love the AOA Business Card
- Paraoptometric Month
- Patient intake coding for medical diagnoses
- Set your practice up for success
- New federal Corporate Transparency Act
- How to compete with online sellers
- CMS finalizes 2024 physician fee schedule: AOA’s 8 takeaways for optometry
- How do you measure success in your practice?
- 4 tips to elevate the profession and educate the public
- Now we’re talking: Communicating with the public
- Level up your optometric surgical team: AOA launches surgical assistant coursework
- 4 essential personal financial tools for optometrists
- Coding for orthoptic training
- New remote testing option for paraoptometric certification saves time, distance
- Testing 1, 2, 3 … paraoptometric exam handbook, resources for certification testing
- 6 things every hiring practice owner should include in a career center listing
- Now we’re talking: Patient communication
- AOA, leading schools organize to safeguard and expand optometry’s independence
- Co-managed care rife with success stories for patients, doctors
- 3 ways to grow careers and practices at Optometry’s Meeting® 2023
- Why disability insurance is crucial
- Now we’re talking: Interprofessional communication
- Build your practice and protect the planet
- You’ve been served—now what? Where ethical intersects legal
- DEA’s new opioid training mandate: What you need to know
- How to handle bad reviews and ratings
- How the updated position statement can help guide telemedicine in optometry
- 3 questions to ask your malpractice insurance agent
- Optometry’s ‘medical’ eye care opportunity a boon for patients, coordinated care
- AOA Antitrust Compliance Policy
- How the AOA Business Card can benefit your practice
- Combatting inflation
- How to earn an MBA while practicing
- AOA’s new Center for Independent Practice to amplify members-only resources for practice success
- Window Tinting
- The most important thing to know about retirement savings planning
- bolster your cybersecurity
- Identity Theft
- How the HIPAA Privacy Rule applies in a public health emergency
- Partners in care
- 4 tips for handling payer clawbacks: What the experts say
- When patients defect: A case study in emotional intelligence
- A career choice
- Be proactive: Identifying improper sales programs, financial incentives
- Scope of practice and malpractice insurance
- website ADA compliance
- Which retirement plan is right for you
- AOA practice success initiative can help with payer issues
- The most important questions to ask about disability insurance
- audio-only telehealth
- A case study in professionalism
- How to eliminate bias in the exam
- Keeping the practice’s mental health top of mind
- Managing expectations Telemedicines next step
- Optometrys Meeting Surgical Saturday
- 5 ways AOA membership can bring your practice success
- 6 ways to make a job posting pop
- The impact of paraoptometric certification
- AOA EyeLearn revamp improves accessibility of CE resource
- Good faith estimate requirement takes effect
- Optimize your student loan repayment strategy
- How to speak the universal language of care
- How to Obtain Hospital Privileges
- 4 common misconceptions about life insurance
- The privileges of providing care
- How team learning improves doctor-staff coordination
- Pandemic savings strategies
- doctor-patient-communication
- AOA 2021 Virtual Learning Livecast opens for registration
- Virtual interview tips for employers and applicants
- Paraoptometric Exam Materials & Certification
- Keeping the medicine in telemedicine
- Know your options
- Business transition tips for buying or selling
- The wrong patient communication plan could be costly
- New must have resource by AOA for MIPS providers
- AOA faults Ophthalmology journal MIPS study
- Doctors find lessons and success in applying for lifeline PPP loans
- AOA MORE takes yearlong pause
- New rules ahead for patient access to electronic health records
- 7 things to know to protect your future
- PPP Loan Tax Implications
- AOA offers CE-eligible webinar-paraoptometric certification
- 8 lessons the COVID-19 pandemic has taught us
- talking politics keep peace in the practice
- Selling your practice to a private equity firm
- paraoptometric certification
- Life Insurance Awareness Month
- Members support AOA during COVID-19
- VLL courses debut on AOA professional development hub
- Why back to school eye exams are crucial this year
- Protection check-in
- AOA 2020 Virtual Learning Livecast a success
- How to turn your patients into brand ambassadors
- Paraoptometrics have key role in scope expansion
- Communication key unlocking patients virus fear
- lessons from phase one reopening practices
- Report quality measures and MIPS data
- AOA offers guidance for post-COVID-19 reactivation
- How to reduce your carbon footprint
- federal loans ease pain of COVID-19 pandemic
- life insurance questions answered
- ethically providing telehealth services in your practice
- AOA surveys can benefit optometry
- Healthcare cybersecurity
- Doctor google web health-related inquiries can cloud care
- AOAExcel GPO Contact Lenses optical products
- How to get the most out of your AOA member benefits
- How AOA MORE can help you
- Co management 4 steps to success
- What doctors need to know about retirement savings
- Crafting a clickable job posting
- health information cyber attack
- Overtime pay labor law
- Service animals vs emotional support animals in the practice
- InfantSEE tips for children eye exams
- Medicare Beneficiary Identifiers and doctors of optometry
- Physician burnout EHR
- Flushing Hazardous Waste EPA
- Ethically incorporating telehealth-telemedicine services into your practice
- Transition Right
- Frequently asked questions about liability insurance
- How good doctors compete with bad companies
- National Life Insurance Day
- Team effort
- National Retirement Week
- How to become a bilingual practice
- Be a social whiz
- How to balance work and home life
- Physician burnout improving, still high comparatively
- What do patients think about the Open Payments program
- Paraoptometric certification can boost a career
- Doctor of optometry diabetes crusade
- How AOA membership helps protect your practice and the profession
- How to optimize diabetic care
- How to improve patient care and practice economics
- Pediatric Exams Kids Fears
- How to retire with confidence
- CMS ONC send message on faxs demise doctors put them on hold
- Data breaches cost insurers big but providers more frequently
- How to start a sports-vision practice
- 4 practice tips when disaster strikes
- Bad hires happen
- AOA MORE reports first patient data_helps MIPS providers attest
- Keeping up with Doctor Jones
- The dos and donts of customer service
- Medicare repeals payment cap for therapy services
- Earned interest
- Optometrys bread and butter
- Disability Insurance
- Sustainable solutions-Focusing on a green future
- Ethics Disabilities
- Flu Epidemic
- CMS-Texting PHI among health care providers OK with caveats
- TaxTips
- AOA tools you need to succeed
- Keeping peace in the practice during the holidays
- Handle with care How to dismiss a patient
- Cybersecurity Awareness Month
- Dont let your nest egg lay an egg
- How to add a subspecialty to your practice
- Disaster Lessons
- 4 things to consider before volunteering
- Go green and save green
- server and protect
- AOA encourages members to protect themselves against cyberattacks
- Credit breach continues grip on doctors
- AOA cautions against email phishing scams
- AOA to CMS Significant changes needed to MIPS proposed structure
- Caution email phishing scam
- EBO Guidelines in Practice
- Aging Eyes
- Sunshine Act-Industry Reports
- the-best-defense-against-office-harassment
- Review practice policies on harassment
- Cybersecurity and Cyber Monday
- Medicare Part D drug costs
- tips to get more pediatric patients through your door
- Windows OS on Life Support
- 9 business solutions for doctors
- Tools of engagement enrolling staff as AOA associate members
- retinol ruses and root veggies-fantastic tale of carrots
- Practice changes can increase office efficiency
- On Employee Appreciation Day show your staff you care
- Data breach implications for tax season
- How to make the most of the media megaphone
- 6 types of photos to share on social media
- Holiday how to gifts goals and goodwill
- Credit freeze hinders PQRS feedback
- Considerations for a comanaged care strategy
- Whats your plan 4 tips for emergencies
- AOA US Postal Service raise awareness on eye health
- 3 solutions for noshow patients
- MACRA final rule offers flexibility
- In case of emergency
- 3 actions to help staff grow
- AOA tool helps solve social networking dilemmas
- AOA asks NBEO for assurances on data
- How to prevent theft
- How to fund a retirement program for your practice
- Not meeting attesting to MU Hardship exceptions available
- Malpractice insurance Ensure coverage even after retirement
- Does the white clinical coat matter to patients
- HIPAA Then and now
- Doctors of optometry can play a role in erasing health disparities
- Credit breach continues grip on doctors, students
- AOA member feedback impacts Medicare valuations for services
- How a strong doctor office manager relationship can grow your practice
- Share questions and comments in Ethics Forum
- Think About Your Eyes campaign continues to raise public awareness
- Be prepared for more patients requesting to access their health records
- Medicare Supplier Program Requires Fingerprint based Background Checks
- 4 ways to protect your patients and practice from cyberattacks
- When doctors become patients
- The benefits of a bilingual practice
- Harmed by contact lenses Report now
- Medicare Part D prescribing data offers insight
- AOA nets 2016 Medicare fee schedule wins
- 9 member benefits through AOAExcel
- Health centers to expand services with 500 million grants
- Doctors Are you covered
- Tax law change could impact doctors
- Why doctors of optometry should seek hospital privileges
- CMS issues EHR Incentive Programs final rule
- Cybersecurity Is your patient information practice protected
- Create a space for kids in your office
- Prepare for a shift in credit card fraud liability
- Significant policy change in post-op co-management
- How to go the distance
- Accommodate aging eyes in your practice
- CMS tests Medicare Advantage plan benefit designs
- Get your practice noticed online
- Protect your practice from copyright infringement
- New reports AOA members tally higher incomes
- Position your practice for aging eyes
- Survey Vision insurance sales increase
- 4 paths to practice protection
- Improving patient care with certified paraoptometric staff members
- How to successfully navigate Medicare Advantage plans
- AOA releases directory of accountable care organizations
STEM academia no different: Women face harassment
June 29, 2018
How should employed, employing doctors of optometry handle workplace harassment?
Not even professionals in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) escape the tribulations uncovered by #MeToo as evidenced by a new report that details how academia—a mainstay of diversity and progress—bungles harassment against women.
Published in June 2018, a National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine (NASEM) report, titled "Sexual Harassment of Women: Climate, Culture, and Consequences in Academic Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine," illustrates how, despite growing diversity in STEM fields, harassment against women pervades lecture halls, laboratories and clinics, taking not only an emotional toll but an economic one, as well.
In fact, academic institutions, reportedly, have the second highest rate of sexual harassment (58%) when compared to the military (69%), private sector and government. Those data bore out in surveys of more than 10,000 students and faculty at the University of Texas and Pennsylvania State University systems, where more than 40% and 50% of medical students (respectively) experienced sexual harassment from faculty or staff.
"What is especially discouraging about this situation is that at the same time that so much energy and money is being invested in efforts to attract and retain women in science, engineering and medical fields, it appears women are often bullied or harassed out of career pathways in these fields," the NASEM report notes.
The study itself draws on years of investigations, studies and qualitative interviews regarding harassment of women in academia. Half of those testimonials detail physical abuse but, more commonly, were disparaging remarks or inappropriate comments, noted the Washington Post. Academia's "star culture" among faculty often fans these flames, making "institutions less likely to hold perpetrators accountable."
To counter this culture, study authors made 14 recommendations that include transparency and accountability of system policies, reformed harassment reporting processes and educational training courses, strong and effective leaders diffused more broadly among faculty and staff, an emphasis on diversity, and lastly, further research assessing these suggestions.
"However, to succeed in making these changes, all members of our nation's college campuses—students, faculty, staff and administrators—will need to assume responsibility for promoting a civil and respectful environment," the NASEM report concludes. "It is everyone's responsibility to stop sexual harassment."
AOA resource addresses workplace harassment, offers tips
Although the NASEM report looked exclusively at harassment in higher learning, that responsibility extends into the clinics and offices where doctors of optometry practice. A safe working environment for all employees reflects the standards and behaviors set by the doctor of optometry, notes the newest AOA Ethics Forum case study on workplace harassment.
The Ethics Forum, an online resource for AOA members to review hypothetical case studies containing potential ethical challenges and offering suggestions based on AOA's Standards of Professional Conduct and Code of Ethics, offers recommendations and considerations to doctors for avoiding and addressing workplace harassment, including references to laws and policies.
Per the Ethics Forum, it is the responsibility of the doctor of optometry to:
- Assure victims of harassment that they are safe from retaliation, irrespective of the outcome of events.
- Document the reported incident in detail.
- Ask open-ended questions and remain unbiased and respectful.
- Agree to keep information confidential as the law allows. (In some instances, the doctor of optometry is required by law to pursue the issue further.)
- Interview all witnesses who may be able to provide insight for the investigation.
- Give the other party an opportunity to weigh in on the circumstances.
It is essential to have effective communications with employees and an office policy handbook explaining standards of professional conduct and workplace expectations, and corrective actions. These actions should be reviewed by legal counsel or a human resources expert.