Infectious Disease

Women in medicine have denied secure harassment reporting systems

August 27, 2021

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Source:

Stecher KL et al. Being a Woman in Medicine: Education, Safety, Leadership, and Other Keys to Changing Culture. Presented at: Global Summit on Doctors Burnout. 24.-26. August 2021 (virtual meeting).

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Healio Primary Care was unable to confirm any relevant financial information at the time of publication.

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For 2 years, Kellie Lease Engraver, MD, had advocated secure reporting structures in her facility so that incidents of harassment can be reported anonymously and objectively assessed.

When their applications were denied, Stecher, a gynecologist in Minnesota, urged professional medical organizations to step in and enforce mandatory secure reporting structures in academic medical centers, which she described as “the bare minimum” to protect employees from harassment.

Source: Kellie Lease Engraver, MD

“The feedback I got is that they can’t push these things through,” she said during the virtual Ending Physician Burnout Global Summit. “You could offer another task force, or I could write another policy statement. But for those of us who have been dealing with these issues for years, this is not enough.

“No matter what we did, we weren’t able to move this agenda forward just to have safe reporting structures for people,” she added.

Previous data has shown that sexual harassment is widespread among doctors, but many do not report it. Lisa Kaye Canada, MD, one orthopedic trauma surgeon attributed this to deficiencies in reporting systems, which she believed were “never safe or confidential,” and victims, especially women, feared retaliation.

When women come forward, the male accusers are often given “immediate credibility”, while the victims are labeled “disruptive”, according to Stecher.

“Very sadly, you often look like the crazy, hallucinatory, schizophrenic, disruptive person,” she said. “So why don’t we report it? Because these actions have no consequences. “

Faced with these problems, Stecher encouraged the women to “keep the receipts”.

“Make sure you save email and text messages. Screenshot what you can, ”she said. “If someone sends you an inappropriate business email, send it to your personal email.”

She called on the health service to support efforts to promote a safe work environment. The high prevalence of harassment and limited support systems as well as microaggressions women are exposed to in medicine contribute to burnout and could help explain why about 40% of women reduce their workload to part time or take up medicine within 6 years their stay left Stecher.

“We have a lot to do. Nobody will stop us at this point, ”she said. “We are at the fork in the road where we can decide whether to turn around and be satisfied with what is normal for us, or we can actually move forward together as a team and fix the problem. I know beyond any doubt that if we work together, we can solve the problem. That is why this grassroots movement is so important. ”

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End the global physician burnout summit

End the global physician burnout summit

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