O2: The development of anti-bullying, discrimination, and harassment guidance: A survey among the association of surgeons in training (ASiT) council members

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Surgical trainees have a reasonable expectation to feel safe and valued in their workplace. Previous reports proved that poor behaviour and misconduct existed in national health system. We aimed to conduct a survey among ASiT council members to identify the need of guidance to report bullying, discrimination, and harassment for trainees who experienced any type of poor behaviour at workplace. Methods Data among executive and council members was collected. Questions were related to trainee demographics, level of training, specialities, experienced, witnessed, or reported poor behaviours including bullying, discrimination and harassment. We asked if participants lacked direction when experienced poor behaviours, if support strategies were needed such as a standardised guidance for reports. Results A total of 58 survey responses were received, 55.17% of participants experienced bullying, 77.58% witnessed it and 67.25% did not report. While 37.93% experienced discrimination, 62.07% witnessed it and 68.97% did not report. A total of 24.14% experienced sexual harassment, was witnessed in 29.69%, 72.41% did not report. Over eighty percent mentioned they need more guidance to support trainees. Almost all participants (98%) agreed that surgical trainees should be made aware of routes for reporting, and 88% agreed that ASiT should develop the guidance to support trainees against poor behaviours. Conclusion Most of the trainees who experienced or witnessed poor behaviours did not report the incidents. A new standardised anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, and anti-harassment guidance was developed based on our study results. We envisage that its use may play a role in eliminating misconducts in surgical training.