Bullying among medical students in a Saudi medical school

BMC Research Notes

Hasan Ali Alzahrani¹ 

[1]Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia

关键词: Educational environment;    Mistreatment;    Harassment;    Bullying;    Students;    Medical;   

Others  :  1166201
DOI  :  10.1186/1756-0500-5-335

 received in 2012-01-19, accepted in 2012-04-05,  发布年份 2012

【 摘 要 】

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.

【 授权许可】

   
2012 Alzahrani; licensee BioMed Central Ltd.

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