Universities consider sexual harassment education in health courses after surgeon's contentious comments

Updated

In the wake of the controversy surrounding the sexual abuse of women who want to be surgeons, universities may introduce sexual harassment education into health courses.

Sydney vascular surgeon Dr Gabrielle McMullin said she previously made that very suggestion to a senior lecturer at the University of New South Wales.

"Over a year ago now, I discussed the difficulties of surgical training with Professor Grimm, and in particular told him Caroline Tan's story.

"I suggested we should have training within the medical curriculum that would help women in particular, but everyone to understand the issues regarding sexual harassment, how to deal with it, and who to go to for help.

"He said that the College of Surgeons would first of all have to acknowledge there was a problem before we could introduce such a measure," she said.

But according to Dr McMullin, it was never followed up.

Professor Michael Grimm is the clinical associate dean at UNSW's St George and Sutherland Clinical School.

Doctors would touch you inappropriately – I realise now it was inappropriate – and hug you and smack your bottom, and make sexual innuendo all the time. Professor Emeritus Judy Lumby

Sydney Nursing School

He said he did not recall being approached by Dr McMullin specifically about the issue.

But he said it would be feasible to introduce sexual harassment education into the curriculum.

"It already has been considered," Professor Grimm said.

"I know that the major program convenor has already been looking into this and has been looking at our curricula map to see if there are places that something like this could be looked at.

"I think what's been highlighted in recent days has made us question whether this is something we ought to be looking at specifically and in more detail," he said.

Professor Grimm said sexual harassment education would highlight the importance of the issue to both males and females.

"I hate to look like this is just a reactive thing, but it's very clear that there are areas in medicine that remain extremely difficult and very challenging for female trainees.

"I suspect that across all sorts of fields of endeavour, where females are just starting to break into an area that's historically dominated by males, that there's a lot of sexism and lack of tolerance," he said.

Professor Grimm agreed that with more women entering the field, it might be a good time to start teaching students how to deal with sexual harassment.

"I think there's been this tacit acknowledgement, and I think Dr McMullin has alluded to this: that there's just no way around this because the system's not going to change."

But he said it was not just universities that needed to address sexual harassment.

"I think the other place to really look at addressing this is in the hospital environment where people are working. In the real hothouse environment five years down the track, where your career is on the line, I don't know how that plays out.

"And that's where the resources and training need to continue," he said.

How to deal with sexual harassment as part of ethics class

Professor Emeritus Judy Lumby, from the Sydney Nursing School, was a registered nurse in the 1960s and worked for 16 years in surgical and intensive care units.

"Doctors would touch you inappropriately – I realise now it was inappropriate – and hug you and smack your bottom, and make sexual innuendo all the time," she said.

"I mean, it happened a lot. We just sort of put up with it, in a way. And there weren't female doctors around...[Now] there's a huge adjustment taking place, I think, and I wonder if the female surgical registrars have replaced the nurses as the objects of sexual harassment," she said.

Professor Lumby said she had never spoken to her students specifically about sexual harassment, but she thinks it is time to start.

"I think it's best taught in the ethics classes, because it is about ethical behaviour," she said.

The move is backed by one woman who was sexually harassed by a senior surgeon for several years.

She told the ABC she would have been better armed to handle the situation if dealing with sexual harassment had been part of her formal education.

"I was incredibly naive; I didn't even know sexual harassment had existed before I entered into the workforce," she said.

"If it was part of the education, you would maybe be armed to handle different situations beforehand.

"I do believe that environments are potentially changing and that people coming through the system have a greater awareness of what the boundaries are."

Topics: doctors-and-medical-professionals, medical-ethics, health, community-and-society, women, sydney-2000

First posted