I’m deeply committed to, one day, contributing to my home country’s medical education and training at a systems level.
There is so much to do; I’ve been thinking a lot about conducting a study to assess abusive behaviors during internship and residency.
The stories you hear are so varied, intricate, and beyond imagination, that it is it hard to efficiently capture the experience with simple methods like surveys.
Residents in Mexico experience abuse and harassment in so many ways: forced to pay for food for people with a higher rank, denied use of elevators in the hospital, subjected to 40+ hour shifts by design, all kinds of sexual harassment from staff and leadership, deprived from basic hygiene and so much more. Punishments like staying in the hospital for days to weeks for not finishing work on time are not uncommon.
With the things I hear people complain about here in the US, like “why do we *only* get 1,000 dollars for education stipend” I can’t help but reflect about the stark differences in the residency experience compared to the rest of the world.
While progress has been made in the past decades, and academic institutions actively fight against these practices, the reality is that the bulk of trainees still endure subhuman conditions.
I bring this to shed light on a longstanding problem that undermines medical education and wellbeing for future physicians. Those with the power to make a difference must act accordingly.
I envision a system where more accountability and camaraderie is organically imbedded, and training is not just fair, but a meaningful and positive experience.