Bullying, Harassment, and Undermining Behavior in Cardiothoracic Surgery in the United Kingdom and Ireland

Bullying, harassment, and undermining behavior has a profound detrimental effect on the multiprofessional team, patient safety, and clinical outcomes. Bullying creates a poor working and training environment, increasing stress, damaging confidence, and impairing well-being. We sought to characterize the prevalence and nature of bullying, harassment, and undermining within cardiothoracic surgery in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland.

A 21-question survey was sent to all members of the Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery in Great Britain and Ireland. Participants were asked about baseline demographics and their experience of bullying as victim or witness.

The survey was sent to 1326 Society for Cardiothoracic Surgery members, and there were 278 responses (21.0%). Most respondents were physicians (75.2%; n = 209), and most were male (58.3%; n = 162). Most (79.1%; n = 220) had experienced or witnessed bullying in some form within the last 3 years (or appointment as a professional). This was experienced directly by most respondents (62%; n = 136), and a large minority (23.6%; n = 52) had witnessed it in their workplace.

Bullying is observed or experienced by a concerning proportion of health care professionals working in cardiothoracic surgery. Ongoing initiatives to reduce this within British and Irish health care need to be strengthened to improve prevention, reporting and investigation, and support for victims and perpetrators to keep workplaces safe for teams and individuals and to facilitate the delivery of the best possible patient care.