Abstract
OBJECTIVE: To assess the prevalence of medical student abuse during clinical clerkships in Japan.
DESIGN: A cross-sectional questionnaire survey.
SETTING: Six medical schools in Japan.
PARTICIPANTS: Final year (sixth-year) and fifth-year medical students in the period from September 2003 to January 2004. From a total of 559 students solicited, 304 (54.4%) returned the questionnaire, and 276 (49.4%: 178 male and 98 female) completed it.
MEASUREMENTS: Prevalence of medical student abuse in 5 categories: verbal abuse, physical abuse, academic abuse, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination; differences in abusive experience between male and female students; types of alleged abusers; reporting abusive experiences to authorities; and emotional effects of abusive experiences.
RESULTS: Medical student abuse was reported by 68.5% of the respondents. Verbal abuse was the most frequently experienced abuse (male students 52.8%, female students 63.3%). Sexual harassment was experienced significantly more often (P<.001) by female students (54.1%) than by male students (14.6%). Faculty members were most often reported as abusers (45.2% of cases). Abuse occurred most frequently during surgical rotations (42.0% of cases), followed by internal medicine (25.1%) and anesthesia rotations (21.8%). Very few abused students reported their abusive experiences to authorities (8.5%). The most frequent emotional response to abuse was anger (27.1% of cases).
CONCLUSIONS: Although experience of abuse during clinical clerkships is common among medical students in Japan, the concept of “medical student abuse” is not yet familiar to Japanese. To improve the learning environment, medical educators need to take action to resolve this serious issue.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Silver HK. Medical students and medical school. JAMA. 1982;247:309–10.
Komaromy M, Bindman AB, Haber RJ, Sande MA. Sexual harassment in medical training. N Engl J Med. 1993;328:322–6.
Silver HK, Glicken AD. Medical student abuse. Incidence, severity, and significance. JAMA. 1990;263:527–32.
Richman JA, Flaherty JA, Rospenda KM, Christensen ML. Mental health consequences and correlates of reported medical student abuse. JAMA. 1992;267:692–4.
Sheehan KH, Sheehan DV, White K, Leibowitz A, Baldwin DC Jr. A pilot study of medical student ‘abuse.’ Student perceptions of mistreatment and misconduct in medical school. JAMA. 1990;263:533–7.
Rosenberg DA, Silver HK. Medical student abuse. An unnecessary and preventable cause of stress. JAMA. 1984;251:739–42.
Maida AM, Vasquez A, Herskovic V, et al. A report on student abuse during medical training. Med Teacher. 2003;25:497–501.
Katz LA, Sarnacki RE, Schimpfhauser F. The role of negative factors in changes in career selection by medical students. J Med Educ. 1984;59:285–90.
Paiva RE, Kienzler LM, Anderson MB. Preparation for the teaching role in residencies: an elective for medical students. J Med Educ. 1982;57:792–4.
Baldwin DC Jr., Daugherty SR, Eckenfels EJ. Student perceptions of mistreatment and harassment during medical school. A survey of ten United States schools. West J Med. 1991;155:140–5.
Uhari M, Kokkonen J, Nuutinen M, et al. Medical student abuse: an international phenomenon. JAMA. 1994;271:1049–51.
Lubitz RM, Nguyen DD. Medical student abuse during third-year clerkships. JAMA. 1996;275:414–6.
Henry P. Relationship between academic achievement and measured career interest: examination of Holland’s theory. Psychol Rep. 1989;64:35–40.
Elnicki DM, Curry RH, Fagan M, et al. Medical students’ perspectives on and responses to abuse during the internal medicine clerkship. Teaching Learn Med. 2002;14:92–7.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology. 1999, a guideline for preventing sexual harassment. Available at: http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/houdou/11/03/990305.htm#top. Accessed May 15, 2005 (in Japanese).
Kluft RP. The physician as perpetrator of abuse. Prim Care. 1993;20:459–80.
Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, and Technology. Statistical abstract. Available at: http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo4/gijiroku/009/04111201/005/001.htm. Accessed May 15, 2005 (in Japanese).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare for this article or this research.
Ethical approval: The Kyoto University Ethical Committee approved this study’s protocol. We are grateful to Dr. Tsukasa Nakamura for advising data managing and to Mrs. Makiko Ohtorii for data entry.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Nagata-Kobayashi, S., Sekimoto, M., Koyama, H. et al. Medical student abuse during clinical clerkships in Japan. J Gen Intern Med 21, 212–218 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00320.x
Received:
Revised:
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1525-1497.2006.00320.x