MEDICAL-STUDENT ABUSE - PERCEPTIONS AND EXPERIENCE

A questionnaire containing 18 vignettes of common clinical educational situations with potentially abusive treatment of medical students and a 10-item attitude assessment about abusive behaviour were administer ed to the first- and fourth-year medical students at a mid-west US uni versity medical school. The first- and fourth-year groups did not diff er significantly on perceived abusiveness of most of the vignettes, al though several of the individual vignettes were perceived significantl y differently by the two groups. As hypothesized, the fourth-year stud ents had experienced such situations more frequently. Attitudes toward s abusive behaviour did not differ between the two groups. The authors contrast teaching interactions perceived as educationally useful and not abusive with those seen as abusive and not useful and offer explan ations for the differences observed. Finally, the possible implication s of the results for medical education are discussed.