Bullying and harassment of doctors

From the Work related blogs and news blog:

instead of taking the view that bullying and harassment is the work of errant individuals, it is the context of the NHS that provides the main basis of analysis. This includes:

1) The training of doctors includes an ‘initiation rite’, justifying the bullying and harassment that is often a feature of the undergraduate medical culture.

2) Bullies are attracted to the caring and health professions by opportunities to exercise power over vulnerable patients and employees. It is viewed that this problem is not just confined to junior doctors, but senior doctors and consultants may be bullied by other consultants or senior managers.

3) The established culture of the medical profession is one that potentially perpetuates an environment of bullying and harassment, especially during training.

4) A culture of secrecy exists in the NHS which prevents people from speaking out and reporting bullying and harassment behaviour.

No wonder the standards af care can be so unpredictable, when the carers are spending half the time looking out for the bullies...