Dental Students’ Perception of Harassment

Rogowski T, Milosavljevic A
Student Union of the faculty of Odontology, Malmö University, Sweden

Aims
The aim was to examine students’ perception of ill-treatment and harassment during their undergraduate education. We will also propose a plan of action how to reduce it.

Material and Methods

A questionnaire was designed and students at the dental school, Malmö University, Sweden were asked to answer short questions and comment different situations, where ill-treatment and harassment may have occurred. The questionnaire, which also presented definitions of terms used, was handed out to two student cohorts (2005, 2007). Ill-treatment was defined as a bad action towards someone at least a single time and harassment as occurring continuously and caused by one and the same person or a group. Information regarding the aims and methods of the study were presented to the students. In 2005, the results of the questionnaire were presented to the students and the faculty. For the cohort 2007, differences between sexes and students of different educational levels were analysed statistically.

Results
Of the cohort 2007, 29 % of the students perceived they have experienced ill-treatment. This should be compared to the cohort 2005 when 47 % of the students had felt harassed. Most of the students (cohort 2007) where ill-treated by other fellow-students rather than by teachers or patients. This probably is due to that some students have difficulties to exchanging constructive criticism. There was no difference between men and women (p < 0.05). Students of the last class experienced ill-treatment at more occasions than students of lower classes (p = 0.003). Many students (63 %) did not know where to seek guidance when they wanted information on ill-treatment and harassment.

Conclusion
We conclude that the number of students experiencing ill-treatment was reduced between 2005 and 2005 with limited activities. Although this reduction is positive we find it insufficient. Therefore, we currently design a more thorough plan of action.

Preliminary results from Faculty of Odontology, Malmö University- 34th ADEE Annual Meeting,
4-6 September 2008, Zagreb, Croatia

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