Medical Student Abuse
As I noted in a previous posting, there currently is a problem in the education of medical students about professional behavior including humanism. They may be given explicit information during their first two years of medical school but by the 3rd year and beyond this information may be degraded by their tacit learning attending to patients under supervision of their superiors. They may “learn” wrongs from their superior’s misbehavior and yet many students may find it impossible to avoid this in view of the pressures, self-interest and abuse they will encounter. Yes, I wrote abuse. You have heard of child abuse, elder abuse, spousal abuse and abuse on the job.. well, there is also medical student abuse which has been going on for years and years. Many older physicians have never looked at this behavior as abuse but only part of the initiation ritual which they themselves had to survive during their formative years.
From the American Medical Association News in 2000:
Mistreatment of medical students appears to have declined during the past six years, according to surveys of fourth-year students by the Assn. of American Medical Colleges.
But medical education experts believe statistics are misleading and that students continue to be subject to unacceptable levels of public belittlement, humiliation, and physical and sexual abuse, and have been denied opportunities for advancement because of gender or ethnicity.
"If you think abuse is gone, it is not," said Harry Jonas, MD, co-secretary of the Liaison Committee on Medical Education. LCME accredits the nation's 125 medical schools.
In a survey of 12,734 seniors conducted last year, the AAMC found that 26.7% had been occasionally belittled or humiliated compared with 28.1% in 1998. Slightly more than half, 51.1%, said they had never been subject to such abuse during their four years compared with 48.1% in 1998 and 61.7% in 1996.
As in past surveys, women and minority students recorded more incidents of sexual, physical and mental abuse than white men, the AAMC survey found.
As you can see from the above statistics, whether the situation is improving or not, the percentages are still large and may be incomplete. Ritual or not, either is destructive toward instilling the professional behavior we all would like to see in our physicians. ..Maurice.
posted by Maurice Bernstein, M.D. @ 7:02:00 AM
13 comments
13 Comments:
I was abused in medical school so I just dropped out. I couldn't take being blackballed once I filed a complaint. There is no protection against retaliation for medical students. I filed bankruptcy because I was already $100,000 in debt by the third year. The final straw for me was when a surgical resident rubbed his penis against my buttocks during a surgical procedure, not to mention how badly I was belittled on a daily basis. I said to myself forget this crap, I'll find something better. Life is too short.
It's a sad story you tell. Obviously, medical student abuse is still going on. When will it end? By the way, did you find something better, something to respect you? ..Maurice.
Please report any form of abuse on this new website, which deals with college/university faculty abuse of students:
www.dearpenelope.com
Former and current students may post their stories anonymously.
Let's hope that teachers and administrators will visit the blog and learn. ..Maurice.
I am a young woman pushing through medical school. Every day is a fight. I feel as if I am being watched. One teacher targeted me and has told other teachers about me. That teacher who I was strongly advised not to report is now being considered for dean of medical education. The abuse I did talk about was dismissed as his coach like teaching style. I was also forced to get a neuropsych exam if I was to continue school at which point the dean sent an email about my requirement to see a psychiatrist to multiple parties including the financial aid officer, seceretaries, and even some teachers.
After dropping out I had to rebuild my life because my whole life had been centered around becoming a doctor. I just couldn't take the abuse during my third year of medical school and the constant put-downs and harassment. No one at the administrative level listened to me or seemed to care. Administrators who were supposed to help me, turned on me. When the surgical resident rubbed his penis between my buttocks, I felt so abused and raped both physically and mentally, that I could not go on any longer. My goal to become a doctor no longer mattered because I was trying to protect my dignity. Upon leaving medical school, I began the healing process and became a much better person because of it. Financially, I have struggled. It took about 9 years to recover. However, each morning when I wake up I feel this emptiness inside and a vague sense of emotional pain because of what occurred. I sometimes wish I had gone to a medical school that treated its students better but I have come to find that the problem is so widespread that it's nearly impossible. During the abuse episodes I began to become numb and empty inside. I went into a self-protection mode and no longer could care about most of patients in a manner that was consistent with my natural caring personality. The profession had revealed its ugly head and I no longer wanted a part of it. I felt like I was going to have to march to the commander's orders on a daily basis and it reminded me of the horror stories I had read about the holocaust and how people were brainwashed to follow a corrupt leader in an almost blind-like fashion. I wanted to be diffent. I wanted to be who I always was-a compassionate person-but the doctors kept trying to break me and mold me into an uncaring, "technical doctor." The hazing process in medical school, for me, was a form of rape. At the end of my ordeal, I lost my self-esteem, my pride, my ego, my financial security, my social standing, my career goal, my dream and my innocence. I tried to enter another medical school abroad and was accepted but could not go due to financial reasons. I have a new job now where I am respected and it feels really good. My pay scale is not what it could have been but I know if I had become doctor, I would not have the personal integrity I have today becuase of the cruel, prolonged course of abuse I would have had to endure. Abuse changes a person and causes PTSD. After meeting a number of physicians, I have observed signs and symptoms of PTSD, which I personally believe is a result of the abusive training. Giving up a part of your mind to the deleterious effects of abuse in a consenting manner during the medical doctor training process is never worth any amount of money which one could accumulate by being a licensed practicing physician. My heart goes out to anyone that has experienced the type of pain that I have endured. When you are somewhere serene and there is a vague sense of silence, think of me, and send me your silent blessings. God bless you.
Frankly, while I am grateful to my staff and to most of the residents, I find that the nursing "profession" has a long way to go to rectify the conduct of its members. While about a third of nurses are supportive, and a third are tolerable, approximately one third of nurses make it a point to belittle med students, act in unprofessional and condescending manners, or are otherwise just plain hateful. I don't know if it is driven by jealousy or a power trip, knowing that med students cannot speak up in what is an incredibly twisted system. Political correctness says that nurses can do no wrong, and that if you believe that they can, then you as a medical student are showing "insensitivity." It is SAD how unprofessional the training of physicians is compared to other disciplines.
To whom this may concern,
I am the child of a urolgical surgeon. I love the human body and appreciate its capacity to adapt to numerous situations. I have both the aptitude, the finances, and the drive to go to medical school. However, given the horrendous abuse I suffered as a child, including physical , sexual, and emotional, I can say that I would never be able to go through that again. I have no doubt that a lot of it stemmed from my father's training as a resident surgeon. These abusive practices not only affect members of the medical community (doctors, nurses, etc) but their children as well. WHY WHY WHY is this necessary? Do you not realize how many lives you ruin? Not only one BUT SEVERAL? What is being accomplished with this inhumane process? NOTHING! Every individual should have the right to achieve their potential, the hazing and abuse that goes on makes that impossible. No human being can learn and excel under these conditions. The system needs to be fixed somehow and as a result, drives away the decent human beings who sincerely have a desire to help. IF THE MEDICAL PROFESSION WAS NOT THE ABUSIVE, CRUEL, DISGUSTING SYSTEM THAT IT IS: I WOULD HAVE GLADELY BEEN A DOCTOR.
THE MEDICAL SYSTEM IS STAGE FOUR, GLEASON 7 PROSTATE CANCER. IT is uncontrollable cellular growth with few chances of repair in sight. I don't think in my lifetime, the system that transformed my father into a horrendous sadistic MONSTER will ever change. It is my one hope, before I die (I am in my 20s now) that some miracle might happen. What a damn shame.
To the post on Saturday, April 19, 2008 1:49:00PM - I know from experience the abuse that you speak of. I know that no words I write can even begin to do justice towards the feelings of horrid pain and rage that you probably feel inside. The dehumanization process that strips you of every possible bit of soul, self esteem or will to live.I applaud your decision to be a human first and a doctor second. Please be assured my thoughts and prayers are with you. If you have any doubts about your decision, please go back and read my post. Without knowing it, the choice to refuse to be molded into that model of cruelty and evil, you have made the world a better place already. Thank You.
Sincerely,
DR
"given the horrendous abuse I suffered as a child, including physical , sexual, and emotional, I can say that I would never be able to go through that again. I have no doubt that a lot of it stemmed from my father's training as a resident surgeon. These abusive practices not only affect members of the medical community (doctors, nurses, etc) but their children as well. WHY WHY WHY is this necessary? Do you not realize how many lives you ruin? Not only one BUT SEVERAL? What is being accomplished with this inhumane process? NOTHING!"
It makes standards. Act against it and you act against professionalism and service..
I honestly would not consult with a physician whose training had not been abusive. It teaches them that their ideals must take second place to service.
We toss around the idea of "care," but physicians do not exist to care. They exist to serve. If the idea of "service" needs explaining to you, there is nothing I can say.
Frank, all I can say is "Hmmmn..???" Shouldn't service be based on care? ..Maurice.
It's interesting to learn that some med students are treated as horribly as patients. I've heard many times that kids that were abused in their youth become abusers later in life. Now we know why the world is filled with sadistic doctors.
It seems to me that nurses that abuse med students are just jealous that they don't have the intelligence or discipline to become doctors themselves. My advice would be to try to ignore them, after all nurses are nothing but uneducated assistants.
I don't believe all medical students are abused as the
article suggests. True, there are a lot of verbally abusive
female nurses who target medical residents. Medical
residents are not required to work long hours any longer,
yet from a recent study suggests they are making more
mistakes despite working shorter hours.
PT
PT, not all but I am sure "many"--believe it! Medical students are really treated kindly in the first 2 years but it is when they get into the grind of clinical medicine in the last 2 years is where they bear more responsibility to others (no longer just to themselves) and meet up with "strange" superiors (unlike their skilled teachers of the first two years). The students are the "innocents" and are subject to unethical and abusive behavior by those academic superiors. I'll see if I can find some up-to-date statistics to record here. ..Maurice.
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