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Medical residents suffer verbal, physical abuse from professors
A medical student at a Seoul university hospital was recently summoned to his medical professor’s room, only to be beaten severely. A week later, the same professor kicked the medical resident in an operating room and then beat him with a medical instrument. Before long, he was again kicked by his professor, this time in front of patients and their families; the doctor also used foul language against the student at this time. The reason for this brutal treatment? The condition of a patient being seen by the professor with the help of the student had not improved. The medical student finally posted his story on the Internet site of the Korea Intern Resident Association. At a university hospital in Gyeonggi Province, medical residents recently banded together against professors’ habitual abusive language and violence. The group registered its complaint with the intern’s association, which said it would launch a fact-finding investigation against the hospital and the professors involved.About 20 similar cases have been reported to the association via the Internet or by phone so far this year. These include not only cases involving doctors committing violence against their medical students, but also violence among senior and junior residents. It also was found that doctors were abusive toward nurses or other hospital employees. The reported situations, however, represent the tip of the iceberg, as most cases go unreported. According to Jeong Hyeong-yun, an official of the intern’s association, said it is considered natural that residents are whipped by their professors in the hospital. Victims of this kind of violence tend to keep their mouths shut about their ordeal, as they feel they are in a position of weakness compared with that of their professor. Hospital authorities also keep mum about the violence, as revealing such incidents would damage their reputation. Some sensible doctors have tried to correct this shameful tradition, but the deep-rooted practice of violence among those meant to cure looks beyond the scope of change. A survey conducted by professors of Ajou University medical school in 2004 found that 14.2 percent of 972 medical residents and practitioners have been victims of violence, and 55 percent have faced abusive language. Professor Im Gi-yeong of Ajou University, in charge of the survey, said, "If professors or senior doctors habitually use abusive language to junior doctors while making their rounds, patients lose trust in the entire hospital. Then effect of treatment may be reduced naturally." According to the survey, up to 88.2 percent of doctors who have used abusive language were themselves victims of such a practice when they were in training. The violence practiced, too, works in much the same kind of cycle. A more fundamental problem is that medical residents exposed to everyday violence will unwittingly pass this along to the patients in the form of an authoritarian or non-consoling attitute, agreed experts. [englishhani@hani.co.kr]
