27.05.15
Medical students report high levels of patient and workplace abuse
A new survey of medical and healthcare students has revealed widespread abuse of patient dignity and safety, as well as abuse of workplace colleagues.
Researchers from the University of Dundee and Cardiff University conducted a survey of about 4,000 medical and healthcare students from across the UK and found that more than half of those questioned said they had seen clinicians breaching patient dignity or safety during the past year.
Similar numbers also reported witnessing the abuse of colleagues – with over 75% reporting being victims of abuse themselves.
The survey also found over half of medical student respondents reported undertaking an examination or procedure on a patient without valid consent following the request of a clinical teacher for the sake of their learning, while well over 25% reported instigating this themselves.
Only 10% of respondents reported experiencing no professionalism dilemmas over the previous year.
Professor Charlotte Rees, director of the Centre for Medical Education at the University of Dundee, said: “The findings have been consistent and illustrate the severe pressure students are frequently put under. More positively, the findings have prompted action by some education providers.”
She added: “The findings around workplace abuse concur with previous research suggesting that student abuse, and witnessing the abuse of others, occurs as soon as students enter the clinical environment.”
The survey also found that medical and healthcare students experience distress during and after these events, with women reporting greater distress than men. Although medical students reported less distress the more times they experience certain events (essential for learning), generally both medical and other healthcare students reported becoming more distressed with great exposure to them.
Two questionnaires were sent out to 2,397 students studying medicine, and 1,399 students in other healthcare fields, including nursing, pharmacy, physiotherapy and dentistry. The aim was to understand the impact of professionalism dilemmas as experienced by UK healthcare students and the moral distress this placed upon them.
The researchers said their data also shows that, contrary to a widely held belief that medical and healthcare students suffer an erosion of empathy, these students actually maintain empathy throughout their undergraduate years.
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