graduate medical education bullying: a survey of podiatry residency programs

Background: bullying during podiatric medical and surgical residency has not been previously assessed and published. it is important to study bullying in podiatric medical residency programs because it may contribute to resident burnout and other psychological harm, as well as poor quality care.method: the purpose of this study was to survey current podiatry residents, recent podiatry residency graduates/fellows, and program directors to determine if there was a significant difference in the acknowledgement of bullying being a problem in podiatric residency programs amongst the groups.  an electronic survey was administered via the american podiatric medical association’s (apma) membership list.  fisher’s exact test was used to determine if there was a significant association between residents, recent graduates/fellows, and program directors’ perceptions of bullying being a significant problem in podiatric residency programs and acknowledgement of residents being bullied.results: the survey was emailed to 1,163 eligible participants.  the completion rate of those who accessed the survey was 58/67 (86.6%).  of those who responded, 53% (n=31) reported that residents were bullied at their program. decline in performance (22%) and depressive behavior (22%) were the most reported consequences of bullying. of those who reported bullying at their residency program, they most frequently reported “5 or more” occurrences. there was a statistically significant difference of (p=0.013) and (p=0.014), respectively, between residents, recent graduates/fellows, and program directors’ perception and acknowledgement of bullying being a significant problem in podiatric residency programs.conclusion: our results indicated that bullying occurs at podiatric residency programs, that it has harmful consequences, and perceptual differences exist between residents, past residents/fellows, and program directors.