Background: Assessment of the presence and characteristics of sexual harassment in academic medicine is of global and increasing issue. Only limited data on the German situation are available so far.
Methods: To assess the extent of sexual harassment and to identify persons involved an online survey was conducted in the student population of the medical school of Münster, Germany. A questionnaire was sent digitally via lock box after translation into German. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistical methods such as categorical variables. Baseline characteristics, e.g. answers by male or female medical students, were correlated with their individual experiences and perpetrator groups by means of univariate analysis. The anonymous online questionnaire was sent to all medical undergraduates at Münster Medical School between 1st October and the 30th November 2018.
Results: A total of 2162 medical students were asked to participate: 623 (28.8%) completed the survey. Sexual harassment is a significant issue among medical students at Münster. About 87.6% of those being victim of some form of verbal and /or physical assault were female; the majority by patients, followed by superiors and less frequently by colleagues. All students who had experiences with forced physical contact were females (100%). 58.9% of undergraduates were exposed to sexually harassing behaviour. 41.3% of those suffered from verbal and 31.8% from physical assaults, respectively. 8.5% of them faced forced physical contact. Perpetrators were mostly male superiors and male patients.
Conclusions: Sexual harassment within medical educational field and working place exist in a huge German medical school and interventions are actually established by an independent voluntary task force to increase communication, reflection and instill prevention measure.