Bullying among medical students in a Saudi medical school

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Bullying and sexual harassment of medical students by their teachers appears to be widespread phenomenon. However, nothing is published about its prevalence in conservative countries such as Saudi Arabia. This survey aims to ascertain the extent of these mistreatments among students in a Saudi medical school. FINDINGS: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted on a group of 542 clinical years' medical students in a Saudi medical school to explore students' perceptions of their educational environment including exposure to different kinds of bullying. Bullying was defined as "a "persistent behaviour against a medical student that is intimidating, degrading, offensive or malicious and undermines the confidence and self- esteem of the recipient". Results revealed that more than one quarter (28.0 %) of the surveyed students reported exposure to some sort of bullying during their clinical . Ninety percent of the reported insults were verbal, 6 % sexual and 4 % physical. Males were more exposed but difference was not statistically significant. CONCLUSIONS: Bullying among Saudi medical students is an existing problem. A policy against bullying and harassment should be adopted in all of medical colleges to monitor this phenomenon and support students who have been bullied.     

Smoking among Yale medical school faculty

A 1985 survey of a random sample of faculty at the Yale University School of Medicine investigated smoking prevalence and attitudes. The overall prevalence of cigarette smoking was estimated to be 9.8 percent, much lower than the prevalence in the general population. A higher proportion of women than men were current cigarette smokers. With regard to department affiliation, surgeons were most frequently current cigarette smokers, with psychiatrists having the lowest prevalence of current cigarette smoking and the highest percentage of people who had never smoked. In general, attitudes toward smoking were negative.