From medical student mistreatment to burnout: How can we change the culture?

03/22/23 • 40 min

In this second of a two-episode series on medical student mistreatment, we discuss its impact on burnout with a colleague who is working to change the culture of medical education and practice through research and leadership.

Previous Episode

Medical Student Mistreatment: A Wicked Problem

How is it that a healing profession -- medicine -- has such a deeply ingrained culture of harming its own? And what can we do about it? In this first of two back-to-back episodes on medical student mistreatment we consider the scope of the problem and attempts to confront it. We hear from one medical school that, with external funding, developed a program with online resources available to any school that are designed to foster discussion and self-reflection among all stakeholders: attendings, residents, students, and other health care professionals in the ecosystem.

We share here links to resources and papers discussed in the episode:

#MDsToo: A student mistreatment prevention curriculum for faculty members and residents - PubMed (nih.gov)

To access the UC Irvine video series

JAMA IM paper

Eradicating medical student mistreatment: a longitudinal study of one institution's efforts - PubMed (nih.gov)

Next Episode

My patient’s in shackles: Can we take these off?

We might assume that a patient who is chained to their hospital bed must be restrained for good reason, but our guest challenges that assumption in a published account of a man in shackles who is intubated, sedated, and paralyzed in the ICU. He and his co-author write that "Over-policing and mass incarceration have led to Black prisoners being disproportionately represented in jails and prisons. Those of us in positions of power may disregard the shackle, or not question its purpose, or even propose that it is justified." But how often do incarcerated patients actually try to escape while receiving medical care? Should a physician ask the guards to take off the shackles? What are the legal and ethical consequences of doing so? What is the right thing to do? What are the implications of not speaking up? We explore these questions and more.