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June 8, 2017 by Courtney Balentine

What Do You Do When One of Your Trainees is Harassed By a Patient?

While performing a hernia exam, a patient told the female resident that he usually got a “special reward after a woman handled his testicles.” His meaning was clear, and he seemed to consider this a perfectly reasonable thing to say to a doctor. When the resident came out to present the patient, she mentioned what had happened to the chief resident (also a woman), but did not bring it to my attention. However, the chief made sure that I knew about it before going into the room. The patient then proceeded to make the same “joke” when I was in the room and I was frankly flabbergasted that he thought it was such a normal thing to say that he would repeat it in front of me. While I tried to politely educate the patient that this behavior was not appropriate, and pointed out that he would never say such a thing to me, he seemed more confused than enlightened by our conversation.

Looking back, I wonder if I handled this situation well. Having never been trained to handle such a situation, I was essentially figuring it out on my own.

Could I have been more forceful or taken a different approach with the patient?

How have other attendings handled such situations?

Is there a good way to educate patients who regard such behavior as acceptable?

How can we help our trainees deal with these problems?

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Courtney Balentine

Dr. Balentine is an assistant professor in the Division of Gastrointestinal Surgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. He completed his fellowship in endocrine surgery at the University of Wisconsin. His research program is focused on improving the quality of recovery from complex surgery.

Latest posts by Courtney Balentine (see all)

  • What Do You Do When One of Your Trainees is Harassed By a Patient? - June 8, 2017

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