‘It would not be tolerated in any other profession except medicine’: survey reporting on undergraduates’ exposure to bullying and harassment in their first placement year

Abstract

ObjectivesTo determine the extent to which undergraduate medical students experience (and/or witness) bullying and harassment during their first year on full-time placements and to compare with new General Medical Council (GMC) evidence on bullying and harassment of doctors in training.SettingA UK university offering medical and nursing undergraduate programmes.Participants309 medical and nursing undergraduate students with 30–33 weeks’ placement experience (123 medical students and 186 nursing students); overall response rate: 47%.Primary and secondary outcome measures(A) students’ experience of bullying and harassment; (B) witnessing bullying and harassment; (C) actions taken by students; (D) comparison of medical and nursing students’ data.ResultsWithin 8 months of starting clinical placements, a fifth of medical and a quarter of nursing students reported experiencing bullying and harassment. Cohorts differ in the type of exposure reported and in their responses. Whereas some nursing students follow incidences with query and challenge, most medical students acquiesce.ConclusionsBullying and harassment of medical (and nursing) students—as well as witnessing of such incidents—occurs as soon as students enter the clinical environment. This augments evidence published by the GMC in its first report on undermining of doctors in training (December 2013). The data suggest differences between nursing and medical students in how they respond to such incidents.

Mistreatment in an academic setting and medical students' perceptions about their course in São Paulo, Brazil: a cross-sectional study

“…Since that time, studies conducted in different countries [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] have corroborated the high prevalence of different forms of aggression within medical education, thus giving support to the idea that these abusive situations reflect a strongly hierarchical medical culture.…”

Medical student mistreatment: an inconvenient truth?

“…We wonder whether an online anonymous questionnaire would yield greater participation with students with a mixture of different experiences. This was seen in a study by Tim et al which saw a much larger participation of 309 medical and nursing students [3].…”

Ebola, Team Communication, and Shame: But Shame on Whom?

“…Hierarchical systems of leadership have been found to foster bullying and incivility (Johnson 2009;Paradis et al 2013). Medical, nursing, pharmacy, and dental students report being bullied by their faculty (Anderson 2013;Knapp et al 2014;Rowland et al 2010;Timm 2014), by their preceptors (Timm 2014), and as new professionals (Fnais et al 2014;Steadman et al 2009). Health professionals also report being bullied by each other.…”