More than a third of UK medical students do not receive sexual misconduct training, research has found.
The study by researchers at the University of Cambridge, published by JRSM Open, found that almost half of medical schools offered no training or only generalised harassment training that was not specific to sexual misconduct or that was wholly outside the context of being a doctor.
Analysing responses from the UK’s 34 medical schools to freedom of information requests, the research found there was no standardisation of training on sexual misconduct across medical universities.
“Graduates from more than one-third of schools in the UK are leaving their medical training without being educated on sexual misconduct and the medical profession anywhere in their degrees. It cannot be assumed, therefore, that graduates who are working as junior doctors have received training on sexual misconduct before starting their NHS roles,” the authors write.
They say medical students, as future clinicians, have a crucial and strategic need for education that allows them to perform a critical role in exhibiting good behaviour, and intervening, identifying, assessing and reporting sexual misconduct when they see it happening at work or in wider society.
The findings come as a separate study found that nearly one in three female surgeons working in the NHS had been sexually assaulted in the past five years. That study, commissioned by the Working Party on Sexual Misconduct in Surgery – a group of NHS surgeons, clinicians and researchers – also found that 29% of women had experienced unwanted physical advances at work, more than 40% had received uninvited comments about their body and 38% said they had received sexual “banter” at work.
A Guardian/British Medical Journal investigation in May found more than 35,600 “sexual safety incidents” had been recorded in NHS hospitals in England over the past five years. That prompted the General Medical Council to call on doctors to show “zero tolerance” of sexual harassment.
The Cambridge researchers point to serious shortcomings within the health sector in preventing and addressing sexual misconduct, with costs in damages to address sexual misconduct in the NHS exceeding £4m in the last five years.
Dr Sarah Steele, the lead researcher, said: “With so little training, it’s little surprise that rates of sexual assault and harassment in healthcare are so high. In a profession dedicated to healing, the persistent plague of sexual misconduct shatters trust and tarnishes the NHS.”
She said the research showed that “new training is imperative”. Steele said: “To produce competent, compassionate doctors, the NHS and clinical schools across the country must urgently prioritise rectifying this glaring oversight. Training is critical to ensure that silence and complicity have no place in the halls of healing.”
Dr Chelcie Jewitt, a co-founder of Surviving in Scrubs and an emergency medicine registrar, said: “It comes as no surprise that there are so few universities that are providing adequate training around the issue of sexual misconduct within healthcare, even though it is most definitely needed.
“The hierarchical structure of medical training leaves medical students in a particularly vulnerable position when it comes to experiencing sexual misconduct within the workplace and medical students should be given training on how to recognise and report it. This is not only an issue of their own personal safety but that of their colleagues and potentially even patients. We are calling for all medical schools and healthcare degrees to provide training around sexual misconduct for all students.”
Saffron Cordery, the deputy chief executive of NHS Providers, said: “These figures make clear that much more needs to be done to address sexual misconduct in the health service. There is no excuse for sexual harassment or assault of any kind in the NHS. It is vital that medical students are properly educated about this behaviour so that it can be prevented, and staff at all levels can rightly feel safe at work.
“Standardising training on sexual misconduct across medical universities in the UK could go a long way to help address this issue. Methods of teaching should also be backed by proper research to ensure future medical professionals are taught most effectively how to respond to abuse and discrimination among their colleagues.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “The health and social care secretary is clear that sexual violence or misconduct of any kind is unacceptable and has no place in the NHS. He is working closely with NHS leaders to root out this unacceptable behaviour and ensure services are always safe for staff and patients.
“In partnership with the royal colleges, staff, regulators and trade unions, the NHS recently launched the healthcare system’s first organisational sexual safety charter. Signatories commit to taking and enforcing a zero-tolerance approach to any unwanted, inappropriate and/or harmful sexual behaviours within the workplace.”
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