Just Read: Confronting unprofessional behaviour in medicine; thoughts on being bullied in health care

Shapiro J. Confronting unprofessional behaviour in medicine. BMJ [Internet]. British Medical Journal Publishing Group; 2018 Mar 7 [cited 2018 Mar 28];360:k1025. Available from: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/29514793

I’m putting this piece and related podcast, featuring Jo Shapiro, MD from @BWHSurgery here as a reference. This issue has existed as long as the practice of medicine and it always will, somewhere, as long as humans are involved.

What will change is who the actors are and the venues. I wrote about an internationally recognized case of bullying in the diabetes reversal movement that’s happening right now (and is mind blowing) (see: Just Read: Tim Noakes and Marika Sboros – Lore of Nutrition: Challenging Conventional Dietary Beliefs)

Bullying can be destructive, it can also be a part of growth. This is not to say that it’s necessary or that it should exist. I have been honored many times in my career to receive anger/bullying on behalf of a person/group of humans/myself. In the setting of having access to privilege (like certain letters after your name that can never be taken away), and experience training in the most profound ethical crises in our profession’s history, it’s a great hope to accept it on most days.

I went back through my photo collection to try and find a time where a photo was taken and I was exposed to some form of bullying. I really couldn’t find a photo that described that, so I’m choosing this one instead:

2017.11.11 National Transgender Health Summit, Oakland, CA USA 0439
2017.11.11 National Transgender Health Summit, Oakland, CA USA 0439 (View on Flickr.com)

The photograph is of four physicians from the future, working in the spaces that many other physicians wouldn’t work in previously. The photograph illustrates that the future is a great way to confront unprofessional behaviour in medicine 🙂

Citation:

Shapiro J. Confronting unprofessional behaviour in medicine. BMJ [Internet]. British Medical Journal Publishing Group; 2018 Mar 7 [cited 2018 Mar 28];360:k1025.

Ted Eytan, MD