Though every medical school and residency program has sexual harassment training and methods for reporting, over half of medical interns surveyed from June 2016 to June 2017 data in the Intern Health Study say they have experienced sexual harassment.
Self-reported demographic characteristics and survey were from June 2016 to June 2017 data in the Intern Health Study, an ongoing National Institutes of Health–funded repeated cohort study of postgraduate year 1 residents (interns) and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC).
Participants completed the shortened Sexual Experiences Questionnaire (SEQ-S)5 at the end of their intern year. Sexual harassment was defined as endorsing at least 1 sexual harassment item of the SEQ-S. Obviously a lot of that is subjective. The cohort was 6,134 interns from 360 institutions and the final analysis included 2027 interns from 28 institutions and 64.7% felt they had experienced sexual harassment.
By specialization, surgeons reported the most while pediatricians surveyed reported the least.
Other includes pathology, dermatology, physical medicine, transitional, and rehabilitation. EM indicates emergency medicine and IM is internal medicine.
It wasn't just women, though more women reported it. Over half of men, 50.9 percent, also were sexually harassed.
What does that all mean? Self-reported data raises means responder bias - sexual harassment to one person may be just flirting or even casual communication to someone else. And it is only in America, and America often has to be first in everything, that may include feeling sexually harassed.
