A July 11 online survey recently conducted by Medscape found that 10 percent of U.S. radiologists have experienced at least one form of sexual harassment from their patients in the past three years—the smallest percentage of 29 specialties in the survey.
Other specialties that reported low amounts of sexual harassment from patients included pathology (11 percent), pediatrics (12 percent), and OB/GYN and women's health (12 percent). Dermatologists (46 percent) and emergency physicians (43 percent) were the most frequently harassed by patients.
Overall, 27 percent of physicians reported having experienced at least one incident in the last three years. The most common incident being obvious sexual overtures such as groping or asking for a date, according to survey results, with female physicians more commonly experiencing them than men.
Women physicians were also more likely to tell a patient who behaved inappropriately to stop or completely dismiss the patient from their practice.
The survey was sent to a total of 6,235 U.S. physicians, residents, nurses, nurse practitioners and physician assistants from more than 29 specialties and of various ages and years of experience. Residents were weighted to Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) by gender. More than half the respondents (3,711) were physicians, and data were collected from March 2 to April 23, 2018.
A recent graduate from Dominican University (IL) with a bachelor’s in journalism, Melissa joined TriMed’s Chicago team in 2017 covering all aspects of health imaging. She’s a fan of singing and playing guitar, elephants, a good cup of tea, and her golden retriever Cooper.