Do attending physicians, nurses, residents, and medical students agree on what constitutes medical student abuse?

Abstract

Background: Whether attending physicians, residents, nurses, and medical students agree on what constitutes medical student abuse, its severity, or influencing factors is unknown.

Method: We surveyed 237 internal medicine attending physicians, residents, medical students, and nurses at 13 medical schools after viewing five vignettes depicting potentially abusive behaviors.

Results: The majority of each group felt the belittlement, ethnic insensitivity, and sexual harassment scenarios represented abuse but that excluding a student from participating in a procedure did not. Only a majority of attending physicians considered the negative feedback scenario as abuse. Medical students rated abuse severity significantly lower than other groups in the belittlement scenario (p<.05). Respondents who felt abused as students were more likely to rate behaviors as abusive (p<.05).

Conclusions: The groups generally agree on what constitutes abuse, but attending physicians and those abused as students may perceive more behaviors as abusive.