AU: New docs guide on workplace bullying

By Jared Reed, 6minutes.com.au

Ongoing concerns about bullying and harassment in medicine have prompted the Australian Medical Association to release a position statement aimed at countering the problem.

While acknowledging traditional bullying techniques such as threats and intimidation, it also addresses more subtle psychological harassment of medical staff, such as exclusion or isolation, and the consequences of high workloads – singling out junior doctors in particular.

“The combination of junior doctor workloads and training hours make junior doctors particularly vulnerable to stress and associated ill-health issues. These factors combined with social, geographical and professional isolation can make junior doctors more susceptible to the effects of bullying,” the statement says.

Dr Xavier Yu is an orthopaedic registrar, who as a former representative of AMA Victoria’s Doctors in Training program, alerted the federal body to bullying in public hospitals. He says the statement signals a cultural shift within medicine.

“What I think really is good about the statement is that it does actually put it out there. Certain behaviours that doctors have tolerated in the past are no longer tolerated, so having a statement certainly is just the beginning, but it’s a big step forward in acknowledging that there is a problem out there,” he told 6minutes.

“It highlights that there is this culture that we need to change, to basically say certain behaviours are no longer acceptable.”