STUDENTS have made an emotional plea to doctors to take a stand against bullying and sexual harassment in medicine following a spate of student suicides and complaints.
AUSTRALIAN Medical Students’ Association president James Lawler is calling for a change of culture in the profession similar to that instituted in the defence force by former chief of army David Morrison.
Mr Lawler says the industry has “wasted” some of Australia’s best and brightest following the suicide of four students this year. “The standard you walk past is the standard you accept,” Mr Lawler said, echoing Lieutenant General Morrison’s words on a YouTube clip on harassment in the Australian Defence Force that has been viewed more than 32 million times. “It can’t be my job or the job of my junior peers at the bottom of the food chain to speak up because the hierarchy are too high and too strong.” Mr Lawler says he has recently received a “flood” of reports of sexual harassment in hospitals. The day after a Four Corners report on Monday on bullying in medicine he received reports from students that a university lecturer had called them “arrogant” and “stupid” and told them students who experience anxiety are “weak”.