Co-medical student abuse in clinical practice

Abstract

[Purpose] To determine the present circumstances, a survey was conducted of whether or not co-medical student abuse is taking place in clinical practice. [Subjects] The subjects were 159 final-year students of all disciplines who had received clinical practice. [Methods] The students were surveyed immediately after completing practical training using a free-style comment questionnaire. They were asked about the use of “verbal abuse”, “inappropriate physical contact”, “behavior inappropriate for the academic discipline”, “sexual harassment”, “sexual discrimination”, and “relations with different disciplines or professions”. [Results] Abuse was reported by all disciplines: by 59.7% of physical therapy students, by 53.3% of occupational therapy students, by 61.5% of speech therapy students, by 88.8% of nursing students, and by 35.0% of orthoptic therapy students. [Conclusion] In this country, there have been few surveys of co-medical student abuse during clinical practice. We intend to make further efforts to research the structure and methods of clinical practice.