Got a bullier on the loose at your med school? Don’t just sit there. Do something.
I just got off the phone with an old-school pediatrician who shared:
We had a professor who would intimidate us during his lectures. He’d point to somebody in the back of the room and tell them to stop doing what they were doing and pay attention or else! Well our class knew there was nobody in the back making noise. Nobody was discourteous. We checked with the upperclassmen and discovered this had been his routine all along—intimidating the class into submission. We decided that we would not put up with this. The next time, we called him on it. The president of our class stood up and told him, ‘We know what you are doing. There is nobody in the back making noise. We are not staying in your lecture. We are leaving.’ And we got up en masse—all 160 students—and we walked to the dean’s office and reported this. We never saw the professor again.
I asked, “What would you recommend today for medical students who experience bullying?”
His advice: “Call them on it. The only way to combat bullying it to call it out publicly so everybody recognizes it. Do not let anyone intimidate you—ever.”
Are you getting bullied in medical school?
Contact Dr. Wible or call 541-345-2437
Pamela Wible, M.D., founded the Ideal Medical Care Movement. She was named the 2015 Women Leader in Medicine by American medical students for her work on medical student and physician suicide prevention. She offers popular biannual medical student and physician retreats to help her colleagues heal so they can practice ideal medical care too!
