RESIDENTS EXPERIENCES OF ABUSE, DISCRIMINATION AND SEXUAL HARASSMENT DURING RESIDENCY TRAINING

Objective: To assess the prevalence of psychological abuse, physical a ssault, and discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual orientati on, and to examine the prevalence and impact of sexual harassment in r esidency training programs. Design: Self-administered questionnaire. S etting: McMaster University, Hamilton, Ont. Participants: Residents in seven residency training programs during the academic year from July 1993 to June 1994. Of 225 residents 186 (82.7%) returned a completed q uestionnaire, and 50% of the respondents were women. Outcome measures: Prevalence of psychological abuse, physical assault and discriminatio n on the basis of gender and sexual orientation experienced by residen ts during medical training, prevalence and residents' perceived freque ncy of sexual harassment. Results: Psychological abuse was reported by 50% of the residents. Some of the respondents reported physical assau lt, mostly by patients and their family members (14.7% reported assaul ts by male patients and family members, 9.8% reported assaults by fema le patients and family members), 5.4% of the female respondents report ed assault by male supervising physicians. Discrimination on the basis of gender was reported to be common and was experienced significantly more often by female residents than by male residents (p < 0.01). Ten respondents, all female, reported having experienced discrimination o n the basis of their sexual orientation. Most of the respondents exper ienced sexual harassment, especially in the form of sexist jokes, flir tation and unwanted compliments on their dress or figure. On average, 40% of the respondents, especially women (p < 0.01), reported experien cing offensive body language and receiving sexist teaching material an d unwanted compliments on their dress. Significantly more female respo ndents than male respondents stated that they had reported events of s exual harassment to someone (p < 0.001). The most frequent emotional r eactions to sexual harassment were embarassment (reported by 24.0%), a nger (by 23.4%) and frustration (20.8%). Conclusion: Psychological abu se, discrimination on the basis of gender and sexual harassment are co mmonly experienced by residents in training programs. A direct, progre ssive, multidisciplinary approach is needed to label and address these problems.