Broadening Conceptions of Medical Student Mistreatment During Clinical Teaching

Hector Oladapo Olasoji of the department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, Faculty of Dentistry, College of Medical Sciences, at the University of Maiduguri in Borno State Nigeria, came up with the article titled “Broadening conceptions of medical student mistreatment during clinical teaching: message from a study of “toxic” phenomenon during bedside teaching.” This is an exceptional study which focuses mainly on the students in medical school within the author`s college. Oladapo sought to conduct the study in order to address the ‘toxic’ aspect of learning posed by learners in his institution. The purpose of the study conducted is to utilize a framework of sociocultural perspective in a bid to offer a definition and also establish the depth, magnitude and risk of the idea of publicly belittling and humiliating students who have fallen short of the expectations required for their course ( Peterson, 2011 ). This element of humiliation is what the learners have deemed to be ‘toxic’ to their learning. The purpose of the article, on the other hand, is to evaluate the appropriateness of the unwarranted act of embarrassing the learners. There is a belief that such humiliation is bound to enhance the performance of the learner in order to avoid scenarios where they are humiliated in front of their classmates. 

While on the quest to determine the veracity of the issue at hand, Oladapo has posed some research questions as follows: What is the prevalence of “toxic” practice encountered by fourth-year medical students? What challenges does “toxic” practice pose for medical students? What are the factors that facilitate and/or protect the “toxic” practice? And does the current intervention strategy address the issue of “toxic” phenomenon? ( Peterson, 2011 ). The author insists that these questions acted as a motivation incentive for the research to be undertaken. While alluding to the literature review, it is evident that mistreatment is rampant and it creates a hostile environment which is stressful to the learners and practitioners as well. In Nigeria for instance, it has emerged that verbal abuse is the most common form of mistreatment and up to 57% such incidences have been reported ( Peterson, 2011 ). United States surveys have also delved deep into the subject and in one such study, it emerged that 42% of participants have had to endure harassment with 84% undergoing belittlement during while at medical school ( Peterson, 2011 ). It was also observed that depression, stress and suicidal tendencies were common in such scenarios. For this particular study, Oladapo targeted 52 fourth year medical students in order to establish how toxic the issue of belittlement was to them. 

In order to further establish the viability of this study, a sequential mixed-method research methodology was utilized. The significant purpose of using this mechanism was to engender an exploration regarding the prevalence and also nature of the phenomenon deemed to be ‘toxic’. Survey questionnaires were, therefore, utilized to collect information from the participants. Besides that, Oladapo sought to conduct a 30-45 semi-structured interviews involving four of the participants ( Peterson, 2011 ). The results of the study indicated that out of the 52 participants, 90% took part in the assessment in full, and out of this number, 51% were male and 45% female, all aged 26-30 years ( Peterson, 2011 ). Also from this number, 85% of them indicated that they had experienced the ‘toxic’ practice in the course of bedside teaching. Moreover, 50% specified that it happened occasionally, 40% one time and 10% frequently ( Peterson, 2011 ). Despite the evident viability of the research conducted, it was not fully consistent since it only focused on one single aspect of mistreatment yet there are many areas where the medical learners encounter belittlement. Generally, however, the information obtained from the research is bound to be useful in ascertaining that better practices are adopted by instructors who seek to better the performance of their learners. 

Reference 

Peterson, M. A. (2011).  Connected in Cairo: Growing up cosmopolitan in the modern Middle East . Indiana University Press. 

Olasoji, H. O. (2018). Broadening conceptions of medical student mistreatment during clinical teaching: message from a study of “toxic” phenomenon during bedside teaching.  Advances in medical education and practice ,  9 , 483.