Research exposing the extent of workplace bullying in New Zealand's health workforce has been published in the British Medical Journal.
Although the survey relied upon by the study's authors - who include Christopher Frampton from the University of Otago - was a self-reporting one, its findings that 38% of people suffered at least one act of bullying on a weekly or daily basis and 67.5% of respondents witnessed bullying suggest the problem is widespread and common.
``The results overall suggest exposure to some degree of negative behaviour is ubiquitous in this senior medical workforce, with work-related bullying especially common,'' the article said.
The researchers' findings were of great concern, Association of Salaried Medical Specialists executive director Ian Powell said.
``We have been discussing them further with DHB chief executives and senior managers ... A number of hospitals are making positive moves to address these issues but significant, systemic improvements in hospital and workforce resourcing are needed to bring about long-term change.''
Medical workplace bullying is a phenomenon which has been reported worldwide, but the New Zealand research is believed to be the first nationwide study of medical specialists.
Doctors quoted in the article called bullying ``an unpleasant rite of passage'' and ``like being trapped in an abusive relationship''.
Despite hating the treatment they received, the vast majority of bullying victims - 69.9% - had not complained.
The authors said in some workplaces bullying had become normalised, explaining why no-one complained.
``I have come to accept this as the culture of the institution,'' one doctor said.
``I feel I cannot trust the people who I could report to.''
Bullying was more prevalent in some medical specialties, with emergency medicine, general practice and radiology being the worst.
When the surveys were conducted many emergency departments were suffering high winter workloads, the article said.
``In light of broader workforce pressures, including poor resourcing, staff shortages and high levels of burnout ... it is hard not to conceive that negative interpersonal interactions, particularly if they are already normalised in the workplace, may escalate as a way to `get things done' in times of significant stress.''
The authors concluded that considerable efforts were needed to improve reporting of bullying and for handling complaints.
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Bullying has been present in hospital environments for decades, good to see that this is finally being recognised. It is time that it was acknowledged that it takes place in all aspects of health care, including the very foundation of our health care system, general practice, particularly corporate general practice. Unfortunately the propagators still tend to act with impunity. It would be interesting to see a wider study of the problem and to have an estimate of the cost in personnel lost to our primary health care system, either to overseas positions (as in my case) or to other branches of the health care system. Bring on transparency!