Impact of Faculty Education on the Incidence of Sexual Harassment Experienced by Canadian Medical Students

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to assess the effect of faculty education about sexual harassment on the incidence of sexual harassment experiences among Canadian medical students. The study was designed as a voluntary, anonymous cross-sectional survey at the University of Toronto, Faculty of Medicine. One hundred sixty-eight of 255 fourth-year medical students in February 1991 and 159 of 242 fourth-year medical students in February 1994 participated. The interventions were seminars, workshops, and lectures on sexual harassment for faculty members and students, beginning in the fall of 1991. Our outcome measures were experiences of sexual harassment (noncontact and contact) in 1991 and 1994 for both women and men. The main findings were a decrease in overall sexual harassment from 35.7% (60/168) in 1991 to 22% (35/159) in 1994. Most of this decline was due to a decrease in noncontact sexual harassment from 26.8% (45/168) in 1991 to 13.8% (22/159) in 1994. The number of students who experienced contact sexual harassment remained essentially unchanged, with 15 in 1991 versus 13 in 1994. Significantly more women continued to experience both forms of sexual harassment. Our principal conclusion was that faculty education seems to have led to a decrease in students' experiences of noncontact sexual harassment. However, the stable incidence of contact sexual harassment may indicate a small core of faculty whose behaviors remain unaltered and will require other forms of intervention.

Harassment and Discrimination in Medical Training

“…Sixteen studies observed a higher prevalence of harassment (mainly sexual) and gender discrimination amongst female trainees compared with male trainees, which was statistically significant (P < .05) in 12 studies, 4,8,19,25,31,33,38,41,42,52,63,70 yet not in the remaining 4 studies. 2,16,20,56 Regarding ethnicity, 1 study found that residents from the Middle East experienced a higher level of discrimination in training programs conducted in the United States.…”

Assessment of Programs Aimed to Decrease or Prevent Mistreatment of Medical Trainees

“…One program designed to address sexual harassment reported no change in rates of noncontact harassment and a decrease in incidences of contact sexual harassment. 19 In the longest-running program, described by Fried et al, 22 a 13-year program resulted in no change in the frequency or type of mistreatment reports. Outcome data are reported in Table 2 .…”

“…Ten studies were included in the final review. 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 Of note, this flowchart does not include the results from the MedEdPORTAL search, which are reported separately. 25 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 …”

“…Eight of the included studies described some combination of lectures and workshops. 19 , 20 , 22 , 23 , 25 , 26 , 27 They ranged from a half-day workshop 23 to a 13-year experience with a wide variety of programs. 22 Two studies used video scenarios that depicted mistreatment events.…”

“…Seven studies provided specific definitions of mistreatment. Two studies 19 , 20 focused specifically on sexual mistreatment, one 23 defined bullying, and one 22 provided definitions for a variety of categories of mistreatment, including sexual, physical, and verbal. Two studies 21 , 24 did not define mistreatment in their description.…”