Comment EDITOR’S COMMENTwith LOUISE FRAMPTON THE CLINICAL SERVICES JOURNAL Editor


Louise Frampton louiseframpton@stepcomms.com


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STEP COMMUNICATIONS ISSN No. 1478-5641


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Surviving in Scrubs: the need for action


Most women, if not all, will be able to relay an account of sexism, sexual harassment and sexual assault that has happened to them at some point in their lifetime. Indeed, it’s extremely likely that they will be able to recall multiple events. That is a shocking yet open secret among women. In fact, it has become so normalised, that these stories often go untold – they have become part of the ‘background’. These buried experiences are pushed back into the recesses – accepted but distasteful truths that become part of the fabric of our culture. When they are shared, there is often disbelief, or the behaviour is minimised. Are you sure


you are not being oversensitive? Maybe you are reading too much into it? Perhaps it was accidental? Oh, he’s just ‘old school’, but he’s a good bloke really - he doesn’t mean anything by it. You are just being a ‘snowflake’. These are just some of the responses that women encounter when they do share their experiences or raise concerns. The #MeToo movement started to change all that - women are no longer prepared to stay silent and accept the status quo. What my generation felt unable to challenge or ‘laughed off’ in order to fit into the status quo, the next generation is shining a light on. They are finding their voice.


‘Surviving in Scrubs’ was set up to raise awareness and campaign against sexism, sexual


harassment and sexual assault within the UK healthcare workforce. The conversations and research relating to these issues had not been broadened to include colleague-to-colleague incidents among the whole healthcare workforce, prior to this campaign. The creators of the campaign – Dr. Becky Cox and Dr. Chelcie Jewitt – both have lived experience of sexual violence perpetrated by healthcare worker colleagues and wanted to amplify the voices of survivors that were not being heard. At the core of this campaign is the website – www.survivinginscrubs.co.uk – where anyone who works in healthcare, irrespective of profession, specialty, location or seniority can anonymously submit their testimonies of sexual misconduct perpetrated by a colleague. The main focus of the campaign is to gather and use the collective narrative of survivor stories as evidence to campaign for change from healthcare organisations including the NHS, medical colleges and associations, healthcare regulators and healthcare universities. The findings evidence systematic and institutional sexism and sexual violence within healthcare in the healthcare workforce, and the stories describe the significant power imbalance between powerful senior male staff perpetrating sexual violence to junior female staff members in healthcare – in “a normalised culture of sexism, entitlement, and the devaluing of women staff”. Perpetrators of sexual violence are described as being ‘well known’, acting within a culture of tolerance, while survivors struggle to raise concerns and face enduring impacts on their wellbeing and careers. Furthermore, it follows on from a report by the British Medical Association (BMA) on ‘Sexism


in Medicine’, which documented the findings of a survey of nearly 2,500 UK NHS doctors. Shockingly, 91% of female doctor respondents had experienced some form of sexism, with 56% experiencing unwanted verbal conduct, and 31% experiencing unwanted physical conduct. A recent report from the Working Party of Sexual Misconduct in Surgery found that almost one- third of female surgeons have been sexually assaulted at work. That is a staggering figure – one that we cannot continue to tolerate in healthcare or beyond. We must ensure women feel safe and can raise concerns, in the knowledge that they will be acted upon and taken seriusly. The Surviving in Scrubs new report makes for difficult and uncomfortable reading, but it is a


must read for all those working in healthcare. To read the full report, visit: www.survivinginscrubs.co.uk


louiseframpton@stepcomms.com Get in touch and give us your views, email me:


January 2024 I www.clinicalservicesjournal.com 5


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