Interns’ perceived abuse during their undergraduate training at King Abdul Aziz University

Figures & data

Table 1 Questions that explored the type of perceived abuse

Type	Questions asked
Verbal abuse	How often has any person shouted or yelled at you?	How often has any person belittled or humiliated you?	How often has any person threatened to harm you?	How often has any person made negative or disparaging remarks about your future profession or career in science?
Physical abuse	How often has any person threatened to harm you?	How often has any person slapped, pushed, kicked or hit you?
Academic abuse	How often has any person assigned you tasks, work, or rotation responsibilities as a punishment rather than for educational purposes?	How often has any person taken credit for work that you have done (papers, projects, clinical work, or research)?	How often have any of the following persons threatened to fail you unfairly or give you an unjustifiably bad grade?
Sexual harassment	How often has any person subjected you to sexual harassment?
Sex discrimination	How often has any person subjected you to gender discrimination (prejudice, slurs)?
Racial or ethnic discrimination	How often has any person subjected you to racial or ethnic discrimination (prejudice, slurs)?
Religious discrimination	How often has any person subjected you to religious discrimination (prejudice, slurs)?

Table 2 Types of abuse experienced by respondents of both sexesa

Types of abuse	Men	Women	Totalb
Verbal abuse	82 (50.9)	79 (49.1)	161 (86.6)
Academic abuse	68 (50.0)	68 (50.0)	136 (73.1)
Sex discrimination	41 (56.9)	31 (43.1)	72 (38.7)
Racial or ethnic discrimination	29 (53.7)	25 (46.3)	54 (29.0)
Physical abuse	23 (65.7)	12 (35.3)	35 (18.8)
Religious discrimination	10 (35.7)	18 (64.3)	28 (15.1)
Sexual harassment	8 (50.0)	8 (50.0)	16 (8.6)

Notes:

a Data are presented as frequency (percent);

b the total is greater than 100% because some interns perceived themselves to have experienced more than one form of abuse.

Figure 1 Frequency of perceived abuse by source. Professors were cited most often as the source of perceived abuse, while demonstrators (also known as teaching assistants) were the least cited.

Table 3 Frequency and type of abuse experienced by department

Department	Frequency and type of abuse								Time (weeks)a
	VA	PA	AA	SH	SD	R/E D	RD	Total
Anatomyb	7	0	5	1	2	0	0	15
Anesthesia	7	0	4	0	4	0	0	15	2
Biochemistryb	13	3	6	0	2	1	0	25
Dermatologyc	2	0	2	0	1	0	0	5
Emergency medicined	7	0	5	0	1	0	0	13
Family medicine	15	1	5	3	3	0	2	29	5
Internal medicinec	99	15	68	0	25	13	13	233	18
Microbiologye	3	0	1	0	1	0	0	5
Obst and gynecol	28	4	24	5	12	1	1	75	12
Ophthalmology	2	0	2	0	1	1	0	6	2
Otolaryngology	8	1	2	0	4	0	2	17	3
Pediatrics	56	12	30	3	13	4	5	123	12
Pharmacologye	5	0	2	0	1	0	0	8
Physiology	3	0	3	0	1	0	0	7
Psychiatry	2	0	2	1	3	0	0	8	2
Radiology	6	1	2	1	4	2	1	17	4
Surgeryd	75	7	46	4	22	11	9	174	18
Others	4	0	5	0	2	0	0	11
Total	342	44	214	18	102	33	33

Notes:

a Time refers to the time spent in each department;

b combined in one module, students have to complete anatomy, biochemistry, histology, and pathology in 18 weeks;

c Internal Medicine includes dermatology and a module in patient safety;

d students are required to spend 2 weeks at the Emergency Department during the Surgery rotation;

e combined in one module, students have to complete pharmacology, microbiology, genetics, and early clinical practice in 18 weeks.

Abbreviations: AA, academic abuse; SD, sex discrimination; Obst and Gynecol, Obstetrics and Gynecology; PA, physical abuse; RD, religious discrimination; R/E D, racial or ethnic discrimination; SH, sexual harassment; VA, verbal abuse.

Table 4 Reasons for not reporting abuse during medical school traininga

Reason	Men	Women	Total
I did not think that reporting abuse would accomplish anything	30 (54.5)	25 (45.5)	55
I considered that reporting abuse would become more troublesome than it was worth	25 (58.1)	18 (41.9)	43
I dealt with the problem directly myself	18 (64.3)	10 (35.7)	28
I did not know to whom I should report abuse	23 (46.0)	27 (54.0)	50
I was afraid that reporting abuse would adversely affect my evaluation	21 (51.2)	20 (48.8)	41
I was afraid that the reporting would not be kept confidential	21 (55.3)	17 (44.7)	38
I did not think that the problem would be dealt with fairly	24 (55.8)	19 (44.2)	43
I did not want to be labeled	20 (60.6)	13 (39.4)	33
I was concerned about being blamed	12 (52.2)	11 (47.8)	23
I did not want to think about the abusive experience further	12 (60.0)	8 (40)	20
I was afraid that the reporting would negatively influence my professional career in the future	21 (55.3)	17 (44.7)	38

Note:

a Data are presented as frequency (percent) unless otherwise specified.