Canadian Medical Association Journal 1996; 154: 1615
Any kind of abuse is indefensible, but I think that psychological abuse deserves special attention because it is often used in the name of education or professional debate. Too many physicians still misguidedly believe that intimidating or humiliating students is an effective stimulus for their learning. And too many believe that the most important goal in a public interchange with students or residents is to win, no matter what the means. The result is unpredictable: some do work harder to avoid further humiliation, but many react by doing everything possible to avoid being singled out at the bedside or in the classroom.
The tragedy of all this can be seen when those same students and residents take their place as faculty members: they, too, begin to abuse students and residents. And so the system is perpetuated; indeed, the pattern of psychological abuse carries over into relationships with their colleagues, other health care professionals and even with members of their family.
Students and residents face quite enough stress daily from new and frightening clinical situations, the fear of failure, financial difficulties and the extreme difficulty of balancing their professional and personal lives. Our duty as teachers is not to increase the stress; it is to help physicians in training learn to cope with it. Abuse is not the way!