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Bullying among doctors in training: cross sectional questionnaire survey

BMJ 2004; 329 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.38133.502569.AE (Published 16 September 2004) Cite this as: BMJ 2004;329:658
  1. Elisabeth Paice, dean director (epaice@londondeanery.ac.uk)1,
  2. Maryanne Aitken, project manager1,
  3. Anita Houghton1, associate dean,
  4. Jenny Firth-Cozens1, special adviser
  1. 1 London Deanery, London WC1N 1DZ
  1. Correspondence to: E Paice

    Introduction

    Workplace bullying is associated with stress, depression, and intention to leave. It is an important issue for the health service because of its potential impact on staff health, retention, and patient care.1 2 In a recent survey of UK doctors in training, 37% said they had been bullied during the past year.3 To understand the problem better, we investigated how commonly doctors in training experienced persistent and serious bullying, who were the sources of this behaviour, and what action was taken to deal with it.

    Participants, methods, and results

    We conducted a cross sectional questionnaire survey of doctors in training in London north of the Thames, using electronic survey units followed up by postal questionnaire, as described previously.4 Our sample was defined as all trainees available at the time of the survey in participating trusts. The survey included four questions on bullying. The stem question, derived from one used by Hicks,2 was: …

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