[Workplace bullying during specialty training in a pediatric hospital in Mexico: a little-noticed phenomenon]

Workplace bullying (WB) is a hostile or intimidating behavior that is practiced against workers and has a negative impact on health, job performance, and the learning process. The objective was to research WB magnitude and its associated factors in Mexico.

Mixed method study. A survey was designed and administered to all the residents in a pediatric hospital in Mexico who agreed to participate. The survey was divided in two sections: a) resident self-reported events of workplace bullying and associated factors, b) situations and factors of abuse were interrogated in a targeted manner.

137 residents participated in the survey, out of which 32% spontaneously reported have been bullied, and 82.4% harassing behaviors in the targeted section. Personal factors that cause WB in this population were: gender, mental skills and physical appearance. Situations that predispose to harassment were: hierarchy, and lack of supervision. Teachers were more frequently the perpetrators. Factors identified as significant for WB were: being female, younger than 29, studying pediatrics, being unmarried, and having reported harassment spontaneously.

The frequency of WB and associated factors are similar to those reported by other authors. Half of the residents did not report spontaneously harassing events, but identified them in the targeted section, which suggests that they consider them as part of the "costumes and habits" during their medical training, or they consider them irrelevant.