Bullying in professions has now had its day

In real life, bullying is deeply unpleasant and difficult to combat when the tormentor holds all the power. FILE PHOTO

I LIKE how the New Zealand Medical Students Association have compiled a dossier on bullying and racism in their medical environments, because I believe it is important to bring to light this kind of in-house acceptance of bullying and hazing in the medical profession.

The idea of "rite of passage" with certain professions and institutions has lingered, particularly with industries where a certain toughness is required, along with a sense of elitism. It's the sort of thing that would occur in the military, in the chefing profession, and certainly in the medical profession. It would happen in industries where the hours you work would be long or unusual.

It is often associated with industries where you know you have to endure more to rise to the top and succeed, and long hours are just the price you pay.

What I suspect happens is that when people concede to these kinds of demands, it becomes a licence to carry on and treat them badly in a general sense. It's like "you know what you signed up for". It becomes a cycle, repeated across the ranks and over the years.

I've seen a bit of this when I was working on building sites, but it's usually along the line of pranks, like sending the youngster off to the supply store to get a left-handed screwdriver.

Building sites were never a good place to practise bullying or racism, especially in England.

But in a hugely uneven situation, where one side - perhaps the senior medical professional - holds all the power, that's when bullying naturally occurs. It is interesting that popular fiction, such as the TV show Scrubs, reinforces it somewhat. The acerbic Doctor Cox tormenting the interns, who end up worshipping him.

In real life, bullying is deeply unpleasant and difficult to combat when the tormentor holds all the power. I applaud the collection of material by the students' association. The findings do not surprise me, because I have no doubt some doctors and nurses do abuse their power over underlings.

What I like is that the dossier - and the media coverage - sends a message that not only are the students watching, recording and collecting evidence, they are saying very clearly they've had enough of this abuse. It's a pattern of behaviour that has had its day.