An Exploration of Anti-Harassment Policies Across Canadian and International Medical Programs

• In Event: Policy, Structural, and Institutional Issues in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

Abstract

Background: Medical trainee harassment is a global issue that has led to a multitude of detrimental effects. An important area to explore is if harassment policies are clearly outlined and accessible to all medical trainees.
Methods: We evaluated 35 harassment policies from 17 Canadian medical universities in 2020 and 16 harassment policies from the top 10 Quacquarelli Symonds (QS)-ranked universities and assigned them a score across three themes.
Results: Our findings show areas of strength for Canadian universities on the harassment training subsection and areas for improvement on the informal and formal complaint procedures section.
Conclusions: There is a need for improvement across Canadian medical university policies. The proposed criteria can be used for future policy improvement and development.

Authors

• Hannah Peters, Dalhousie University

• Nigel Mantou Lou, University of Victoria

• Byunghoon Tony Ahn, McGill University

• Jason Matthew Harley, McGill University