Say NO to Bullying, Harassment & Discrimination
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Say no Bullying, Harassment & Discrimination.
We are a group of Senior Emergency Medicine doctors, aiming to put an end to the widespread culture of bullying, harassment and racism in the medical profession especially in Australia. We hope to create a safe environment for doctors and patients.
We request your support for an ongoing federal court challenge to hold to account those responsible for creating and sustaining a poorly designed training program and subjective assessment process that adversely impacts patient safety and doctor wellness in our Emergency Departments. The opaque training and assessment process places trainees in a vulnerable position prone to abuse and create unsafe workplaces. We will also help support doctors who are victims of bad work place culture of bullying and harassment.
Background
One in three doctors experience bullying, harassment and discrimination at their workplaces and this behavior has a direct impact on doctors’ mental health and patient safety. We know bad workplace culture, leads to poor patient outcomes. Doctors from coloured and minority background are much more prone to abuse.
Just in 2019, two doctors from NSW, took their own lives and three hospitals lost accreditation. The problem is widespread, and the society is paying a price.
The problems with emergency medicine training and culture of bullying, harassment and
discrimination is well documented in surveys. The media highlighted these issues in recent times.
Following the roll out of the new curriculum in 2015, the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine( ACEM) was forced to set up an “Independent” Expert advisory panel (EAG) despite the fact that 80 % of the panel members were members of the college. EAG asked the college to apologize for " unintended systematic racial discrimination” even after finding >85% of colored trainees failed the exam. The college put the blame of failing the defective exam and training process solely on trainees and stated their overseas training was the problem. Most of these trainees were trained in the Australian health system for more than 7-8 years which was definitely more than the training they had Overseas. EAG handed in about 70 recommendations to improve the training program and assessment process. Unfortunately the changes implemented by ACEM are cosmetic, with no meaningful improvement on the ground. Patients & trainees are put in harm's way.
The use of subjective assessments with lack of meaningful feedback to remediate, fail and terminate trainees of color and minority backgrounds is harming patients and doctors. Less than 10 % of trainees of color pass the last hurdle of the training program, despite years of independent practice and clearing all other hurdles. Trainees from minority background are more likely to be remediated/removed from training by the use of non-standardized assessments. In the last year the number of doctors of color joining the training program fell to 15 % from 50.
We are a multicultural society, should we let those who look after us be treated badly?
It is widely known that the Trainers are not trained. Subjective assessments of trainees in domains that no trainee has prior experience is putting patients in harm's way. The Fellowship preparation exam courses industry is more than 1.5 million dollars’ worth most of them run by the examiners from ACEM. Trainees are learning basics of emergency medicine in these courses at the end of their training, while the college sponsored course advises trainees on breathing techniques, yoga, meditation and recommend acting classes, body language coaching and speech pathology to help pass the exam. These are skills that the doctors did not need in their career, however, have to learn to pass the exam.
ACEM states discrimination is lawful if accepted by many. In its submission to Human rights commission ACEM stated “just because a pattern, practice or process is found to be systemically discriminatory, this does not automatically mean that it is unlawful”.
We condemn discrimination in any form, practice or process and it should be weeded out.
We can change this culture. We can make things safer for doctors and patients. We can stop the bullying, racism and harrassment. Our society deserves a better training program and fairer assessment process for our doctors. Together we can do it. Let's support each other. Let's make it safe!
Say no Bullying, Harassment & Discrimination.
we need the funds for the federal court proceedings in 6-8 weeks.
Many many thanks for your help.
We are a group of Senior Emergency Medicine doctors, aiming to put an end to the widespread culture of bullying, harassment and racism in the medical profession especially in Australia. We hope to create a safe environment for doctors and patients.
We request your support for an ongoing federal court challenge to hold to account those responsible for creating and sustaining a poorly designed training program and subjective assessment process that adversely impacts patient safety and doctor wellness in our Emergency Departments. The opaque training and assessment process places trainees in a vulnerable position prone to abuse and create unsafe workplaces. We will also help support doctors who are victims of bad work place culture of bullying and harassment.
Background
One in three doctors experience bullying, harassment and discrimination at their workplaces and this behavior has a direct impact on doctors’ mental health and patient safety. We know bad workplace culture, leads to poor patient outcomes. Doctors from coloured and minority background are much more prone to abuse.
Just in 2019, two doctors from NSW, took their own lives and three hospitals lost accreditation. The problem is widespread, and the society is paying a price.
The problems with emergency medicine training and culture of bullying, harassment and
discrimination is well documented in surveys. The media highlighted these issues in recent times.
Following the roll out of the new curriculum in 2015, the Australasian College of Emergency Medicine( ACEM) was forced to set up an “Independent” Expert advisory panel (EAG) despite the fact that 80 % of the panel members were members of the college. EAG asked the college to apologize for " unintended systematic racial discrimination” even after finding >85% of colored trainees failed the exam. The college put the blame of failing the defective exam and training process solely on trainees and stated their overseas training was the problem. Most of these trainees were trained in the Australian health system for more than 7-8 years which was definitely more than the training they had Overseas. EAG handed in about 70 recommendations to improve the training program and assessment process. Unfortunately the changes implemented by ACEM are cosmetic, with no meaningful improvement on the ground. Patients & trainees are put in harm's way.
The use of subjective assessments with lack of meaningful feedback to remediate, fail and terminate trainees of color and minority backgrounds is harming patients and doctors. Less than 10 % of trainees of color pass the last hurdle of the training program, despite years of independent practice and clearing all other hurdles. Trainees from minority background are more likely to be remediated/removed from training by the use of non-standardized assessments. In the last year the number of doctors of color joining the training program fell to 15 % from 50.
We are a multicultural society, should we let those who look after us be treated badly?
It is widely known that the Trainers are not trained. Subjective assessments of trainees in domains that no trainee has prior experience is putting patients in harm's way. The Fellowship preparation exam courses industry is more than 1.5 million dollars’ worth most of them run by the examiners from ACEM. Trainees are learning basics of emergency medicine in these courses at the end of their training, while the college sponsored course advises trainees on breathing techniques, yoga, meditation and recommend acting classes, body language coaching and speech pathology to help pass the exam. These are skills that the doctors did not need in their career, however, have to learn to pass the exam.
ACEM states discrimination is lawful if accepted by many. In its submission to Human rights commission ACEM stated “just because a pattern, practice or process is found to be systemically discriminatory, this does not automatically mean that it is unlawful”.
We condemn discrimination in any form, practice or process and it should be weeded out.
We can change this culture. We can make things safer for doctors and patients. We can stop the bullying, racism and harrassment. Our society deserves a better training program and fairer assessment process for our doctors. Together we can do it. Let's support each other. Let's make it safe!
Say no Bullying, Harassment & Discrimination.
we need the funds for the federal court proceedings in 6-8 weeks.
Many many thanks for your help.
Organizer
ED TRAINEE
Organizer
Mysterton QLD
