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Clinicians, institutions can act to discourage sexual harassment
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More than half of dermatology residents surveyed report that sexual harassment is “probably” or “definitely” a problem, most often involves a patient and rarely is reported, according to respondents from the 368 members of the Association of Professors of Dermatology Listserv of dermatology faculty and residency program coordinators.
Madeline DeWane, a doctoral candidate at the University of Connecticut School of Medicine, helped spearhead this research and spoke with Healio Dermatology about the findings that surprised her. She also recommends actions clinicians and institutions can take to discourage harassment.
Healio: Did any of the survey results or findings surprise you?
DeWane: Given the literature on sexual harassment in other fields of medicine, we were not surprised that harassment occurs within dermatology training programs or that it is likely to go unreported. However, we were surprised that such a large percentage of the reported harassment incidents originated with patients rather than colleagues, faculty or other members of the health care team.
Healio: What would you like clinicians and institutions at large to take away from these results?
DeWane: Although our data come from a relatively small survey of dermatology residents, we feel clinicians and institutions at large can take away a few key points.
First, our survey data suggest that sexual harassment happens as commonly in dermatology as it does in other fields of medicine.
Second, it seems that instances of harassment are rarely reported by residents (despite the fact that most survey respondents felt they were negatively affected by their experiences). We suggest that barriers to reporting should be further investigated and that training programs should aim to cultivate an environment in which residents are comfortable talking about incidents of harassment.
Third, a significant proportion of harassment may actually come from patients, and medical students and residents get little training in how best to handle these situations. Teaching trainees how to respond when a patient behaves inappropriately (in the same way that we teach students how to deliver bad news or de-escalate a hostile patient) could potentially mitigate the impact of this type of harassment on both students and residents.
Disclosure: DeWane reports no relevant financial disclosures.