Workplace Bullying and Sexual Harassment Among General Surgery Residents in Colombia

Overview

Journal Biomedica

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2023 Jul 11

PMID 37433160

Authors

Luis Carlos Dominguez

Lilian Torregrosa

Liliana Cuevas

Laura Pena

Sebastian Sanchez

Mauricio Pedraza

Alvaro Sanabria

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: Workplace bullying and sexual harassment are concerns among general surgery residents in Colombia.

Objetive: To explore the prevalence and impact of workplace bullying and sexual harassment incidents among general surgery residents in Colombia.

Materials And Methods: This nationwide study was conducted in 2020. Residents selfrated their exposure to workplace bullying and to sexual harassment in the forms of gender harassment, unwanted sexual attention, and sexual coercion. We analyzed demographic variables, perpetrator’s characteristics, and differences between victims and non-victims.

Results: The study included 302 residents. It found that 49% of general surgery residents in Colombia suffered from workplace bullying and 14.9% experienced sexual harassment. The main forms of sexual harassment were gender harassment (47%) and unwanted sexual attention (47%). Women reported significantly higher rates of being sexually harassed. Surgeons were the main perpetrators of sexual harassment.

Conclusions: Workplace bullying and sexual harassment are frequent events in general surgery residency in Colombia. These findings suggest the need for interventions to improve the educational culture of surgical departments and decrease the prevalence of these behaviors.

Citing Articles

PlayDecide teamwork: a discussion game for junior doctors to explore workplace bullying and harassment.

Burke E, Byrne D, Donegan M, Hannigan O, OGrady J, Waugh A BMC Med Educ. 2024; 24(1):1438.

PMID: 39695569 PMC: 11654063. DOI: 10.1186/s12909-024-06308-y.

Sculpting the good surgeon or excising the bad one: How clinical teachers could perpetuate attrition in surgical residency programmes.

Rada-Estarita A, Rincon-Ortiz M, Hernandez-Rodriguez O, Olmos-Vega F Med Educ. 2024; 59(3):328-337.

PMID: 39428833 PMC: 11789842. DOI: 10.1111/medu.15557.

Perpetrators of gender-based workplace violence amongst nurses and physicians-A scoping review of the literature.

Ayaz B, Dozois G, Baumann A, Fuseini A, Nelson S PLOS Glob Public Health. 2024; 4(9):e0003646.

PMID: 39240832 PMC: 11379169. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003646.

A gender-based review of workplace violence amongst the global health workforce-A scoping review of the literature.

Nelson S, Ayaz B, Baumann A, Dozois G PLOS Glob Public Health. 2024; 4(7):e0003336.

PMID: 38954697 PMC: 11218983. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pgph.0003336.

Specialties preference by gender among medical students at Sefako Makgatho Health Sciences University, South Africa.

Pooe A, Ntuli S, Masango S, Rab A, Mudau T, Moloko P S Afr Fam Pract (2004). 2024; 66(1):e1-e6.

PMID: 38708748 PMC: 11079371. DOI: 10.4102/safp.v66i1.5858.

References

Smith-Han K, Collins E, Asil M, Gamble Blakey A, Anderson L, Berryman E . Measuring exposure to bullying and harassment in health professional students in a clinical workplace environment: Evaluating the psychometric properties of the clinical workplace learning NAQ-R scale. Med Teach. 2020; 42(7):813-821. DOI: 10.1080/0142159X.2020.1746249. View

Huang Y, Chua T, Saw R, Young C . Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment in Surgery: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis. World J Surg. 2018; 42(12):3867-3873. DOI: 10.1007/s00268-018-4716-5. View

Orlino J, Sura T, Pei K, Smeds M . Bullying of vascular surgery trainees. J Vasc Surg. 2022; 75(6):2065-2071.e3. DOI: 10.1016/j.jvs.2022.01.123. View

Wild J, Ferguson H, McDermott F, Hornby S, Gokani V . Undermining and bullying in surgical training: A review and recommendations by the Association of Surgeons in Training. Int J Surg. 2015; 23 Suppl 1:S5-9. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2015.09.017. View

Moreno Jimenez B, Rodriguez Munioz A, Martinez Gamarra M, Galvez Herrer M . Assessing workplace bullying: Spanish validation of a reduced version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire. Span J Psychol. 2007; 10(2):449-57. View

Boffa C, Ceresa C, Vig S, Knight S, Royston E, Quiroga I . Zero tolerance to sexual harassment in surgical training in the UK. Br J Surg. 2021; 108(10):e345-e346. DOI: 10.1093/bjs/znab276. View

Fitzgerald C, Smith R, Luo-Owen X, Turay D, Ferrada P, Han J . Screening for Harassment, Abuse, and Discrimination among Surgery Residents: An EAST Multicenter Trial. Am Surg. 2019; 85(5):456-461. View

De la Cerda-Vargas M, Stienen M, Campero A, Perez-Castell A, Soriano-Sanchez J, Nettel-Rueda B . Burnout, Discrimination, Abuse, and Mistreatment in Latin America Neurosurgical Training During the Coronavirus Disease 2019 Pandemic. World Neurosurg. 2021; 158:e393-e415. PMC: 8574080. DOI: 10.1016/j.wneu.2021.10.188. View

Jackson T, Provencio A, Bentley-Kumar K, Pearcy C, Cook T, Mclean K . PTSD and surgical residents: Everybody hurts… sometimes. Am J Surg. 2017; 214(6):1118-1124. DOI: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2017.08.037. View

10.

Clements J, King M, Nicholas R, Burdall O, Elsey E, Bucknall V . Bullying and undermining behaviours in surgery: A qualitative study of surgical trainee experiences in the United Kingdom (UK) & Republic of Ireland (ROI). Int J Surg. 2020; 84:219-225. DOI: 10.1016/j.ijsu.2020.07.031. View

11.

Schlick C, Ellis R, Etkin C, Greenberg C, Greenberg J, Turner P . Experiences of Gender Discrimination and Sexual Harassment Among Residents in General Surgery Programs Across the US. JAMA Surg. 2021; 156(10):942-952. PMC: 8319819. DOI: 10.1001/jamasurg.2021.3195. View

12.

Zhang L, Ellis R, Ma M, Cheung E, Hoyt D, Bilimoria K . Prevalence, Types, and Sources of Bullying Reported by US General Surgery Residents in 2019. JAMA. 2020; 323(20):2093-2095. PMC: 7251443. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2020.2901. View

13.

Halim U, Riding D . Systematic review of the prevalence, impact and mitigating strategies for bullying, undermining behaviour and harassment in the surgical workplace. Br J Surg. 2018; 105(11):1390-1397. DOI: 10.1002/bjs.10926. View

14.

Angelos P . The Value of Speaking up. Narrat Inq Bioeth. 2020; 9(3):229-231. DOI: 10.1353/nib.2019.0069. View

15.

Freedman-Weiss M, Chiu A, Heller D, Cutler A, Longo W, Ahuja N . Understanding the Barriers to Reporting Sexual Harassment in Surgical Training. Ann Surg. 2019; 271(4):608-613. DOI: 10.1097/SLA.0000000000003295. View

16.

Crebbin W, Campbell G, Hillis D, Watters D . Prevalence of bullying, discrimination and sexual harassment in surgery in Australasia. ANZ J Surg. 2015; 85(12):905-9. DOI: 10.1111/ans.13363. View

17.

Parini S, Lucidi D, Azzolina D, Verdi D, Frigerio I, Gumbs A . Women in Surgery Italia: National Survey Assessing Gender-Related Challenges. J Am Coll Surg. 2021; 233(5):583-592.e2. DOI: 10.1016/j.jamcollsurg.2021.08.675. View

18.

Hu Y, Ellis R, Hewitt D, Yang A, Cheung E, Moskowitz J . Discrimination, Abuse, Harassment, and Burnout in Surgical Residency Training. N Engl J Med. 2019; 381(18):1741-1752. PMC: 6907686. DOI: 10.1056/NEJMsa1903759. View

19.

Meara J, Leather A, Hagander L, Alkire B, Alonso N, Ameh E . Global Surgery 2030: Evidence and solutions for achieving health, welfare, and economic development. Surgery. 2015; 158(1):3-6. DOI: 10.1016/j.surg.2015.04.011. View

20.

Martins R, Hashmi S, Inam H, Naeem Janjua M, Malik M . Harassment and mental health in surgical training: a pilot survey of surgical trainees in Pakistan. J Pak Med Assoc. 2021; 71(Suppl 1)(1):S23-S28. View