Creating A Positive Professional Culture: Addressing Academic Bullying

This review aims to define academic bullying, describe its prevalence and impact, and explore multi-level approaches for addressing this form of workplace mistreatment and enacting reform.

Academic bullying is a prevalent form of workplace mistreatment that contributes to poor patient satisfaction, physician burnout, and medical errors. Numerous factors have been proposed as potential reasons for widespread prevalence, including established hierarchy, cultural tolerance, and lack of institutional reporting processes. Evidence suggests that certain populations including women, underrepresented minority members, and LGBTQ + individuals are at greater risk of experiencing academic bullying. This review outlines academic bullying in medicine, including its definition, prevalence, and impact. Here, we describe populations at increased risk of experiencing academic bullying and consolidate proposed solutions to address this mistreatment. Main findings include that vulnerable populations include women, underrepresented minority individuals, and members of the LGBTQ + community and that future solutions include a multilevel approach at the national, institutional, and individual levels.