From abusive patients to harassment: the mistreatment of China’s medical students

Most medical students in China have experienced some form of mistreatment in the workplace, which can affect the way they see their role in the profession, according to the results of a study of tens of thousands of graduates across the country.

In a paper published in the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA earlier this month, researchers said that more than 84 per cent of graduates in the survey reported experiencing at least one form of mistreatment during their training.

The result was much higher than the 46 per cent of graduates who reported such behaviour in a 2016–2017 survey by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the authors said.

In all, 71 per cent of 94,000-plus respondents in the Chinese study reported mistreatment from patients, while 61 per cent said they were required to perform a personal service for someone in a higher position. Graduates also reported being publicly humiliated (25.9 per cent), unjustly treated (38.2 per cent), and deliberately harassed (48.9 per cent).

“Patients and their families are regarded as a common source of mistreatment in learning environments,” the researchers from Peking University in Beijing said in the paper.

“Requiring medical students to complete tasks unrelated to or beyond their learning scope is reportedly common … Although not involving direct verbal abuse or physical harm, this represents an abuse of power wherein superiors leverage their authority over students.”