Sexual harassment, power abuse, bullying common in Dutch hospitals

The working environment in Dutch hospitals is very unsafe. Over half of doctors and medical students have experienced bullying, abuse of power, or sexual harassment at work, Nieuwsuur reports based on a survey by the medical journal Medisch Contact and interviews with hospital employees.

The biggest problems in hospitals are intimidation and abuse of power, according to the Medisch Contact survey of over 6,000 doctors and medical students. Over a third of respondents have experienced this. Sexual harassment is in second place, followed by discrimination and bullying. A fifth of respondents said that the transgressive behavior left them with mental health problems.

The survey results show how serious the problems are in hospitals, gynecologist Bertho Nieboer, chief editor of Medisch Contact, told Nieuwsuur. “All forms of inappropriate behavior occur in hierarchical situations in hospitals. Unfortunately, we have not yet been able to improve this.”

The inappropriate behavior mainly happens in the hospital. Most of the victims (75 percent) are women. Surgeons are the most common perpetrators - over a third of respondents who experienced undesirable behavior said a surgeon was behind it. Internists and gynecologists follow at a considerable distance.

Bernad Elsman, a surgeon and member of the Dutch Association of Surgery, called the figures “very confrontational.” He partly blames the nature of the profession, in which doctors often have to make vital decisions under high time pressure. “That often entails a direct way of communicating. This may more easily lead to transgressive behavior,” he told Nieuwsuur.

Doctors in hospitals rarely confront each other about misconduct, Joep Hubben, an emeritus professor of health law who works as a judge in disciplinary cases and has investigated inappropriate behavior at ten hospitals, told the program. “They have to work together intensively on a daily basis and keep healthcare running. We know that addressing people in a professional area is already complicated. Then you can expect this to happen even less in the case of transgressive behavior.”

The survey by Medisch Contact confirmed this - almost half of the doctors and medical students who experience inappropriate behavior do nothing about it. Only a tiny proportion report it to a confidential advisor. Nieboer: “They have the feeling: we have to run the place together. You have to work with these colleagues for another 25 years. In the eyes of those doctors, the doctors in training are just passersby and, therefore, less important.” Reporting inappropriate behavior could have consequences for their careers, medical students fear.