Table 3 Selected anonymized responses from the closing ‘free text’ field of the survey
From: Discrimination, harassment, and intimidation amongst otolaryngology—head and neck surgeons in Canada
Respondent | Response |
|---|---|
Faculty | I have sought interventions several times from many different sources as listed above for ongoing intimidation, harassment and discrimination—I have come to realize there will never be any action taken to curb the "bad actors"… The deck is constantly stacked against success for me in my experience |
Faculty | There is underlying racism and prejudice embedded in the medical world. It is not easily identifiable for those who do not identify with being a visible minority and/or the male gender |
Faculty | I would like to see a corrective process for people causing these problems rather than a punitive one. There is a problem that even the suggestions of harassment can destroy a career—this shouldn't be the goal obviously |
Faculty | Please broadly disseminate your findings. Medicine is a noble profession, but the culture of medicine which enables intimidation and harassment is toxic |
Faculty | I think there have been vast improvements in these issues since I was a resident 30 years ago. In those days I think there was discrimination in the way female residents were thought of vs male residents. There was also a lot of covert homophobia. For the most part I think those areas of discrimination have been eliminated |
Trainee | As a woman, myself and my women physician friends have experienced many experiences of discrimination especially from allied health, however you cannot do anything about it otherwise you will become labelled "problematic" as I have seen numerous times |
Trainee | When I approached the wellness office at our institution, I was told that action could be taken to deal with the mistreatment I had experienced but that the office was unsure whether this would affect my future employment potential and residency experience and as such recommended that I do not take any action |
Trainee | Concerns about confidentiality in reporting are unavoidable no matter how air-tight the reporting process is given how small and interconnected the otolaryngology departments are |