Experiences and Impacts of Harassment and Discrimination Among Women in Cardiac Medicine and Surgery: A Single-Center Qualitative Study

Bad behavior in healthcare: an insidious threat to patients, staff, and organizations

“…Studies cite being ignored (failure to respond to requests, pagers/calls, and questions) or being spoken to rudely or aggressively as the most common UPB [15,16]. Victims of UPB must weigh the fear of retribution and risk to reputation and career advancement with the benefit of reporting UPB, which dramatically impacts the rates of reporting [5 && , 10,13,17,18]. Failure to report due to peer counselling for fear of retaliation and career limitation is common [5 && ,10,13] even within highly unionized professions such as nursing underreporting is common [17].…”

“…Inaction, minimization, and dismissive reactions from managers and organizations as to the seriousness of UPB creates a sense of futility for reporting [10,17]. At worst, reporting of UPB can result in complainants having their competency and 'resilience' challenged or being labelled as a 'troublemaker' [17,18]. Victim blaming or ignoring complaints is more common when perpetrators are powerful and have unique skills the organization is dependent upon [19] Healthcare professionals who identify as belonging to a minority group (women, ethnic, cultural, and gender diversity) remain more vulnerable to UPB [4 Junior and inexperienced staff are more likely to be victims of UPB [11,[14][15][16]21,22].…”

“…There is variability in the results of expensive 'speaking up' programs due to the normalization of UPB, power imbalance and hierarchies that exist in healthcare [22]. Expecting victims to orchestrate individual strategies while organizations maintain a sense of willful blindness is equally ineffectual and unjust [18]. Goals for diversity, equity, and inclusion are meaningless objectives if organizations cannot ensure psychological safety.…”

“…Inaction, minimization, and dismissive reactions from managers and organizations as to the seriousness of UPB creates a sense of futility for reporting [10,17]. At worst, reporting of UPB can result in complainants having their competency and ‘resilience’ challenged or being labelled as a ‘troublemaker’ [17,18]. Victim blaming or ignoring complaints is more common when perpetrators are powerful and have unique skills the organization is dependent upon [19]…”

“…Sexual harassment and benevolent sexism may be dismissed by organizations as innocuous ‘well intentioned comments’ or ‘compliments’ rather than identified as an UPB [6 ▪▪ ,8 ▪▪ ,18,19]. Women in healthcare describe the difficulty of proving UPB, such as discussions about their reproduction [5 ▪▪ ] favoritism, and increased professional opportunities for male colleagues in promotion, research, training, and education [6 ▪▪ ,18]. Consequently, UPB impact the recruitment and retention of women in healthcare and discourage the pursuit of certain medical specialties [4 ▪▪ ,20].…”