STUDENT ABUSE IN MEDICAL-SCHOOL - A COMPARISON OF STUDENTS AND FACULTYS PERCEPTIONS

A perceived abuse or mistreatment has been identified in the United St ates as a major source of stress for undergraduate medical students. T he objective of this paper is to explore whether medical students in I srael have similar complaints, and if so, whether medical faculty memb ers are aware of students' perceptions of mistreatment. Third and fift h year medical students of the 6 year undergraduate program of the Heb rew University-Haddasah Medical School were asked to respond to a self -administered questionnaire similar to those used in previous studies in the USA. An additional questionnaire was developed for faculty memb ers. Response rates were 75% for students and 39% for faculty members. Analysis of the responses indicated that similar to the results of Am erican studies, the number and severity of all forms of perceived inci dents of abuse increased from the third (pre-clinical) to the fifth (c linical) year. Verbal abuse was the most frequently reported form of m istreatment. The most frequently identified abusers were nurses, follo wed by clinical faculty members, and general surgery was reported as t he most abusive clinical department. Students' complaints of denial of basic privileges were more common than those reported in the USA, whi le verbal abuse and physical threats were more frequently reported by American medical students. Analysis of the responses of faculty member s indicated that clinical faculty, residents and interns were unaware of the extent of these students' perceptions, while pre-clinical facul ty overestimated the extent of verbal and psychological abuse. We conc lude that the perception of abuse or mistreatment among Israeli medica l students is more prevalent than either students or faculty believe.