Updated 08.54 | Published 08.31
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full screenMany doctors have felt harassed by patients, according to a study. Archive image. Photo: Nam Y. Huh/AP/TT
Sexual innuendos, physical approaches and unwanted body exposures.
Almost half of the medical profession has been subjected to sexual harassment by patients, an international study shows.
Globally, 45 percent of doctors have felt sexually harassed in various ways, The Guardian reports. Female doctors are most vulnerable: 52.2 percent have experienced that patients exposed them to unpleasant situations. Among male doctors, the figure was 34.4 percent.
It can be anything from physical abuse to inappropriate jokes. Many doctors state that patients come with sexual allusions and sexual or romantic invitations in connection with healthcare visits.
Some patients also display unwanted body parts and ask for unnecessary examinations of intimate parts of the body, writes The Guardian. Or reacts in inappropriate ways – such as getting an erection.
The study, which was published in the Internal Medicine Journal, consists of an analysis of 22 previously published studies from several different countries worldwide. Doctors in the UK said they were worst affected, followed by Canada, Australia, the US, Israel, Germany and Malaysia.
The findings should prompt hospitals to act and ensure the protection of their employees, says Dr. Caroline Kamau-Mitchell of the UK’s Birkbeck College to The Guardian.
– I recommend that hospitals and clinics take these results seriously and give doctors who work in separate departments, on night shifts or alone, protection in the form of surveillance cameras and burglar alarms, she says.