Resilience training for junior doctors is a band aid solution that won’t stop workplace bullying in hospitals and may even be unethical, researchers say.
Instead, workplaces need to target senior medical staff with anti-bullying programs and even encourage ‘bystander’ interventions to ensure bullying is not normalised.
This is the message delivered by the authors of a new study that investigated rates of bullying and harassment via a survey of over 800 first and second-year post-graduate doctors working in the NSW and ACT health systems.
More than half of trainees had experienced bullying and nearly one fifth experienced sexual harassment, the survey carried out in 2015 and 2016 revealed. However almost half the victims did not report incidents, often due to fear of reprisal or because they did not believe it was worth it.
The data “confirm a systemic problem of bullying” concluded researchers from the Health Education and Training Institute of NSW in a Australian Health Review article.
In their survey responses, most junior staff said bullying had occurred occasionally (less than monthly) and was perpetrated by a senior medical staff member.
Forty per cent of victims did not report an incident, their reasons including not knowing how to make a report, a belief that reporting would amount to nothing, or being discouraged by other staff.
Of the 60% who did complain, most described ineffective or personally harmful outcomes.
“Many respondents described a workplace culture where they perceived bullying and harassment to be normalised by senior staff”, the authors wrote.
“Complaints were often dismissed or behaviours blamed on the sensitivity of the complainant and/or no further action taken by senior medical staff member after the complaint had been lodged.”
The authors said their findings suggested that many junior medical staff will tolerate bullying or harassment for the sake of perceived job security.
“Recent calls to implement systems that improve resilience in junior doctors withstanding workplace stress could be seen as unethical if not implemented as part of a broader systematic suite of interventions,” they concluded.
The findings showed a need for new approaches, such as better education and training for staff who support, work with or supervise junior doctors, they said.