Harassment in Healthcare

We need to start using behavioral techniques to make it stop – we need to teach people how to make it stop.

The Harvard Business Review posted an article about sexual harassment in health care. https://hbr.org/2018/11/sexual-harassment-is-rampant-in-health-care-heres-how-to-stop-it

It says, “Many factors make an organization prone to sexual harassment: a hierarchical structure, a male-dominated environment, and a climate that tolerates transgressions — particularly when they are committed by those with power. Medicine has all three of these elements.”

This is a good synopsis – not just of sexual harassment – but of bullying and harassment.

One of the reasons this is of such concern in health care is that health care decisions are negatively impacted by bullying and harassment. And bad decisions in health care – can be fatal.

The advice on how to make it stop – in the article – is fine, but not especially helpful. As I keep saying, people need to learn the behavioral techniques required to make unwanted behavior, of any type, stop.

Even if you are not in health care, you should care about bullying and harassment, because – bullying and harassment lead to bad decision making. It affects everyone and every company and every school.

Let’s stop tolerating it. Let’s learn how to make it stop using behavioral techniques. and let’s start creating happier communities and workplaces.