In this episode, host Dr. Aaron Fritts interviews Dr. Rachael Forsythe and Dr. Konstantinos Stravapoulas about their Research Collaborative for Peripheral Arterial Disease (RCPAD) survey on bullying in the European vascular workplace, and overall trends in reported bullying incidents.

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SHOW NOTES

We start the episode by learning about the RCPAD goals to enhance research collaboration between European vascular departments. The workplace bullying online survey is one of the RCPAD’s current projects. This survey was disseminated via social media and society mailing lists, and it received a total of 586 medical practitioners in vascular specialties.

Next, we review major findings from the survey. Workplace harassment was experienced at all levels, starting from trainees and continuing in consultants/attendings. 43% of respondents had experienced bullying, harassment, undermining behaviors within the last 12 months, and 75% had witnessed colleagues experiencing these. Many respondents wrote about specific themes of harassment, including gender, pregnancy status, ethnicity, sexuality, and religion.

Dr. Forsythe references annual data collected by the trainee-centered Rouleaux Club, which shows an upward trend in reported bullying towards trainees. Dr. Stravapoulas highlights the importance of providing good role models who display ethical behaviors in the OR, since the training period is such a malleable time. We end the episode with a discussion about how increasing diversity in vascular departments can help expose colleagues to people of different backgrounds and hopefully decrease fear and judgment of the unknown.

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RESOURCES

Research Collaborative on Peripheral Arterial Disease (RCPAD):
https://www.rcpad.org/

Vascupedia:
https://vascupedia.com/

Rouleaux Club:
http://rouleauxclub.com/

ACC Health Policy Statement Outlines Strategies to Address Bias, Discrimination, Bullying and Harassment in the Workplace:
https://www.acc.org/latest-in-cardiology/articles/2022/03/17/16/16/acc-hps-outlines-strategies-to-address-bias-discrimination-bullying-harassment

Workplace Bullying Among Surgeons—the Perfect Crime:
https://journals.lww.com/annalsofsurgery/FullText/2019/01000/Workplace_Bullying_Among_Surgeons_the_Perfect.11.aspx

BackTable Urology Ep. 24: Operate with Zen with Dr. Phil Pierorazio:
https://www.backtable.com/shows/urology/podcasts/24/operate-with-zen

Audible Bleeding Podcast:
https://www.audiblebleeding.com/