title: Medical student abuse during clinical clerkships in Japan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the prevalence of medical student abuse during clinical clerkships in Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional questionnaire survey.
  
  
  METHODS
  Six medical schools in Japan.
  
  
  METHODS
  Final year (sixth-year) and fifth-year medical students in the period from September 2003 to January 2004. From a total of 559 students solicited, 304 (54.4%) returned the questionnaire, and 276 (49.4%: 178 male and 98 female) completed it.
  
  
  METHODS
  Prevalence of medical student abuse in 5 categories: verbal abuse, physical abuse, academic abuse, sexual harassment, and gender discrimination; differences in abusive experience between male and female students; types of alleged abusers; reporting abusive experiences to authorities; and emotional effects of abusive experiences.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Medical student abuse was reported by 68.5% of the respondents. Verbal abuse was the most frequently experienced abuse (male students 52.8%, female students 63.3%). Sexual harassment was experienced significantly more often (P<.001) by female students (54.1%) than by male students (14.6%). Faculty members were most often reported as abusers (45.2% of cases). Abuse occurred most frequently during surgical rotations (42.0% of cases), followed by internal medicine (25.1%) and anesthesia rotations (21.8%). Very few abused students reported their abusive experiences to authorities (8.5%). The most frequent emotional response to abuse was anger (27.1% of cases).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although experience of abuse during clinical clerkships is common among medical students in Japan, the concept of "medical student abuse" is not yet familiar to Japanese. To improve the learning environment, medical educators need to take action to resolve this serious issue.
authors.affiliation: Department of General Medicine and Clinical Epidemiology, Kyoto University Graduate School of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan. sea@kuhp.kyoto-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: Shizuko
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Nagata-Kobayashi
authors.forename: Miho
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sekimoto
authors.forename: Hiroshi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Koyama
authors.forename: Wari
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Yamamoto
authors.forename: Eiji
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Goto
authors.forename: Osamu
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Teruo
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ino
authors.forename: Tomoe
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimada
authors.forename: Takuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimbo
authors.forename: Atsushi
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Asai
authors.forename: Shunzo
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Koizumi
authors.forename: Tsuguya
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukui
mesh_terms: D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D008505:Medical Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology; D012308:Risk Management / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014754:Violence