Sexual harassment teaching in the undergraduate medical curriculum: Review from one UK medical school
Creators: name: Mouly, Laetitia
name: Price, Jim
name: Butler, Ceri
Publisher: name: F1000 Research Limited
Year: 2023

description: <b>Background</b><br> Medical students are known to be victims of sexual harassment (SH), with 16 to 75% of students reporting SH during their training<sup>1,2</sup>. However, there is no research addressing medical students’ thoughts and preferred ways of being taught SH, including when they are victims. Thus, to improve a local medical school curriculum, a research question was developed: “What is currently being taught on SH and what are the local medical students’ views on their SH curriculum?”.<br> <br> <b>Summary of Work </b><br> Participants were recruited from an institution in the southeast of England. A phenomenological approach was taken to conduct online semi-structured interviews. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using thematic analysis.<br> A documentary analysis of the curriculum was also conducted to establish the current teaching materials for SH. The insider researcher status of the principal investigator was beneficial to collect in-depth lived experiences from participants.<br> <br> <b>Summary of Results</b><br> Nine sessions formed the teaching materials, none of which defined SH. Simulations with patients and lectures about rape and domestic violence were accompanied by professionalism discussions where students were welcomed to share their experiences with teaching staff.<br> Students reported being disappointed by their SH curriculum, taught in a context of stigma and fear heightened by the medical hierarchy. Students feared the consequences of reporting their experiences, especially when the perpetrator was a clinician or teaching staff. Embedding activities on safety by instilling ‘allyship’ with active ‘bystander training’ and transparent reporting tools, may be a first step towards shaping the culture away from the accepted normality of SH. These activities may be most effective as student-led case-based discussions.<br> The findings suggest that medical students' personal characteristics (especially gender and age) are significant in their experience of SH, highlighting the intersectionality of an undergraduate’s experience of harassment. Embedding SH teaching for students, staff and hospital leaders may be seen as contributing to the broader agenda of ‘decolonising’ and diversifying medical education.<br> <br> <b>Discussion and Conclusion</b><br> These findings offer a first insight into medical students' views on their SH teaching in the UK, which are currently being embedded in the local curriculum. <br> These findings lay the foundation for ongoing work towards eradication of harassment in medical education.<br> <br> <br> <b>References</b> McClain TS, Kammer-Kerwick M, Wood L, Temple JR, Busch-Armendariz N. Sexual harassment among medical students: prevalence, prediction, and correlated outcomes. Workplace Health Saf .2020;69(6):257-67. doi:10.1177/2165079920969402 Duba A, Messiaen M, Boulangeat C, Boucekine M, Bourbon A, Viprey M, et al. Sexual harassment exposure and impaired mental health in medical students, the messiaen national study. J Affect Disord.2020;274:276-81.doi: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.05.100