Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
Selfies, social media activity, posting personal photos, engaging in unhealthy lifestyle habits… What behaviours are doctors getting up to in and outside the workplace, and do doctors believe these behaviours are appropriate or not?
We surveyed 1266 UK doctors during October-December 2021 to find out.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
When asked if inappropriate behaviour by doctors inside and outside of the workplace has increased, decreased, or remained the same compared with 5 years ago, over half of respondents felt that it had remained the same both inside (55%) and outside (64%) the workplace.
Male and female doctors of all ages reported similar opinions regarding whether inappropriate behaviour by doctors had increased, decreased, or remained the same inside the workplace.
However, when asked about inappropriate behaviour by doctors outside of the workplace, Generation X doctors were 50% more likely to report that this had increased when compared with the baby boomer generation (24% vs 16%).
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
When asked, “Where do you most often find doctors behaving inappropriately?”, almost 1 in 2 (47%) doctors reported ‘In person in a workplace situation’, with this happening more often in a hospital setting than in a general practice setting (51% vs. 33%).
For almost 1 in 4 doctors (23%), it was ‘In person in a public non-medical situation’, with 33% of millennials reporting this, compared with 22% of baby boomers and 19% of Generation X doctors.
Almost 1 in 3 (30%) said they most often found doctors behaving inappropriately on social media.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
When asked if in the past 5 years they had personally witnessed or personally experienced instances of doctors behaving in ways that were inappropriate, 56% said they hadn’t personally witnessed inappropriate behaviour, and 66% said they hadn’t personally experienced inappropriate behaviour.
For those who had, around 1 in 4 (28%) had personally witnessed or personally experienced (23%) inappropriate behaviour in the workplace. Whether this had been witnessed or experienced, it was approximately twice as likely to have occurred within a hospital setting compared to general practice setting.
Under-45’s were 33% more likely to have witnessed inappropriate social media behaviour than 45 and overs, with millennials saying they had witnessed this more than baby boomers (24% vs. 15%).
Regarding inappropriate behaviour outside of the workplace, 19% said they had witnessed this, and 13% said they had personal experience of it, with men being 50% more likely to report this (15% vs. 10%).
In our survey, doctors who had personally witnessed and/or experienced inappropriate behaviour said that the most common ages of the doctors behaving inappropriately was 40-49 (45%), followed by 50-59 (41%), with the 60 and overs being the least likely (15%).
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
When doctors were asked what factors might be contributing to inappropriate or unprofessional behaviour by their colleagues, the most common explanations given were ‘Changing times and acceptance of more casual behaviour’ (44%), ‘General personal arrogance’ (41%), with 36% of respondents saying ‘Job-related stress’ and ‘Personal issues not related to work’.
Baby boomers thought that a lack of training in medical school on social skills was felt to be a contributing factor 50% more than millennials (27% vs. 18%).
Almost 1 in 5 (18%) doctors overall didn’t think there were any contributing factors, with millennials being the most likely generation to have this view.Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
Overall, 2 out of 3 (66%) doctors in our survey say they are on social media. More female doctors were on social media than male doctors (72% vs. 63%), with doctors under 45 years old more likely to have a presence on social media (80%) compared with those aged 45 years and over (60%).
As might be predicted, the younger millennials were more likely to be on social media than the older baby boomers (82% vs. 54%).
The vast majority of doctors (75%) in our survey had only a personal profile on social media.
Of the 1 in 25 doctors who only had a professional profile, male doctors were over twice as likely than female doctors (5% vs. 2%) to say this was the case, with baby boomers being seven times more likely (7% vs. 1%), and the 45 and over age group being five times more likely than the under-45’s (5% vs. 1%) to only have a professional profile.
Those doctors working in hospital were almost twice as likely as those working in general practice to have both personal and professional social media accounts (23% vs. 13%), with Generation X doctors being the generation to most likely say they have both types of accounts (26%).Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
For the 1 in 3 (34%) who said they are not on social media, 3 out of 4 (76%) said it was because they are simply ‘not interested’. For 1 in 3, the reason was ‘confidentiality issues’ (36%) or ‘no time’ (33%), with 1 in 6 (17%) being afraid of harassment.
Reasons given by male and female doctors were similar, although female doctors reported ‘no time’ significantly more than male doctors (39% vs. 30%).
Generation X were twice as ‘afraid of harassment’ as millennial doctors (21% vs. 11%).
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
When it came to which social media platforms doctors used at least three times a week, WhatsApp/Telegram was the most favoured (73%) with Facebook a close second (67%).
There was a clear trend with doctors under 45 years old being far more likely to be frequently active on all platforms except Twitter. Under-45’s were around twice as likely to use Instagram (53% vs. 23%), four times more likely to use TikTok (8% vs. 2%), and six times more likely to use Snapchat (6% vs. 1%), on a frequent basis compared to 45 and overs.
A similar pattern was seen across the generations with millennials using Instagram, Snapchat, and TikTok around three, eight, and nine times, respectively, more frequently than baby boomers.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
The General Medical Council offers guidance for doctors with regards social media use.
The vast majority of doctors in our survey (95%) said that they would not 'friend/follow' a patient on social media.
When it came to what kind of photos it is acceptable for doctors to post on social media, more than 2 out of 3 (69%) respondents thought posting personal photos in swimwear was fine, with under-45’s agreeing with this more than 45 and overs. As far as the different generations were concerned, posting swimwear images on social media became less acceptable with increasing age, with 9 out of 10 (89%) millennials, 3 out of 4 (73%) Generation X, and 1 in 2 (53%) baby boomers stating it was OK to do this.
We also asked if posting personal photos online drinking alcohol, smoking, or eating fast food is acceptable for doctors? Around 6 out of 10 said yes to fast food (63%) and alcohol (59%). Under-45’s were more likely to say these behaviours were acceptable, with millennials being twice as likely as baby boomers to agree it was fine to post personal images drinking alcohol and eating fast food.
Surprisingly, over 1 in 3 (36%) said posting personal photos smoking was acceptable, this being a view held by twice as many under-45’s than 45 and overs (54% vs. 28%), with millennials being three times as likely to hold this view as baby boomers (58% vs. 19%).
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
In our survey, 93% of doctors said they use social media regularly - at least three times a week. When on which social media platform did they find the most doctors behaving in inappropriate ways, the majority (62%) said 'None'.
Of those platforms where inappropriate behaviour was found, Facebook (15%) came out top, with WhatsApp/Telegram (9%) following. Twice as many male doctors as female doctors (12% vs. 6%), and three times as many baby boomers as millennials (11% vs. 4%), reported inappropriate behaviour on WhatsApp/Telegram.
On Instagram, it was female doctors, those under-45, and millennials who reported inappropriate behaviour the most.
When asked which behaviours they had personally witnessed/experienced from doctors on social media in the past 5 years, the most common (72%) was those doctors making inappropriate comments about themselves, friends, or politics. Other behaviours witnessed included posting inappropriate pictures of themselves or of sexually suggestive material. About 1 in 5 reported witnessing doctors posting inappropriate comments about patients, with around 1 in 10 (9%) saying they had witnessed doctors posting inappropriate pictures of patients.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
Selfies have become a popular activity over recent years appearing regularly on social media. When we asked, 1 in 20 (5%) doctors said they had personally seen a doctor taking an inappropriate selfie in a medical situation, such as during a consultation, in an operating theatre, or a morgue. Just under 1 in 10 (9%) said they’d personally seen a doctor take a non-selfie photograph in one of these environments.
Twice as many under-45’s as 45 and overs reported they’d witnessed both these situations. When comparing millennials with baby boomers, millennials were three times more likely to have witnessed doctors taking selfies, and twice as likely to have witnessed non-selfies being taken, in inappropriate places.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
An investigation by the British Medical Association (BMA) in 2018 found that 1 in 5 doctors reported having personally experienced bullying.
In our new survey, the bullying or harassment of doctors or other medical staff by other doctors was the most common inappropriate behaviour personally witnessed or experienced ever (83%) and most recently (40%) in the past 5 years.
Overall, 2 out of 3 (66%) said they had ever personally witnessed or experienced sexist behaviour, with 14% reporting having personally witnessed or experienced this behaviour most recently in the past 5 years. Female doctors had witnessed or experienced this behaviour most recently almost three times more than male doctors.
Lying about credentials was another issue identified with twice as many female doctors as male doctors and twice as many baby boomers as millennials having witnessed or experienced this behaviour by other doctors.
Respondents said that 71% of the doctors behaving inappropriately in the workplace were male.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
But what did the witnessing doctor do? Almost 4 out of 10 (39%) said they spoke directly to the doctor concerned, with older doctors more likely to have taken this action. While 1 in 4 (25%) reported it to the head of their workplace or department, or to human resources. About 1 in 3 (33%) doctors overall said they did not take any action, with this number being higher (45%) amongst those under 45.
We asked, "What should be the outcome / result for the inappropriately behaving doctor?" Given a verbal warning was the recommendation by 1 in 2 (48%) and 2 out of 5 (39%) said that the doctor should be spoken to by management.
Just under 1 in 10 (8%) said that 'Nothing should happen to the doctor'.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
Inappropriate behaviour also occurs outside the workplace and 62% of doctors in our survey said they had witnessed colleagues inebriated in public. More than 1 in 2 (51%) said colleagues had made fun of others, with just over 1 in 3 reporting sexist (38%), bullying (34%), or racist (34%) behaviour by colleagues.
Other inappropriate behaviours witnessed or experienced included making unwanted advances or physical aggression towards another person, lying about credentials, and committing a crime such as embezzling or stealing.
When asked if they had witnessed or experienced doctors being disciplined by their workplace or medical organisation for displaying inappropriate behaviour in public, around 1 in 5 (18%) said yes.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
When asked to reflect on their own behaviour and whether they had mistakenly or knowingly behaved inappropriately as a doctor in the past year, 1 in 10 (11%) said that yes, they had. This was twice as likely to be someone working in a hospital setting (13%) compared with someone working in general practice (7%), and younger, with the under-45’s and millennials admitting to this more than the 45 and overs and other generations.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
Confidentiality in medicine is a foundation of good patient care. Just under 2 out of 3 (64%) agreed that doctorsfully understand privacy laws regarding patients, procedures, and privacy, with more female doctors than male doctors thinking this (71% vs. 59%).
Understanding these privacy laws is one thing, but do doctors take the subject seriously? Almost 9 out of 10 (88%) thought that doctors do. However, hospital-based doctors, male doctors, and older doctors were more likely to disagree.
Medscape UK Doctors Misbehaving Report 2022
Doctors have always been trusted and held in high esteem by the public but what do doctors think about the standards of behaviour expected of them by society?
In our survey, just over half (54%) of respondents felt that these were at the appropriate level, with older doctors more likely to agree with this.
For 43% of doctors in our survey, it was felt that society’s expectations of doctors’ behaviour are too high. Younger doctors were most likely to think this - around twice as many under-45’s as 45 and overs (60% vs. 36%), and twice as many millennials as baby boomers (63% vs. 31%).
Should doctors should have a higher standard of behaviour than the general public? More than 2 out of 3 (67%) respondents said yes, they should, with this opinion being more popular with increasing age – 80% of baby boomers compared to 50% of millennials, and 73% of 45 and overs compared to 53% of under-45’s.
But should doctors be able to act as they wish in their personal life, so long as it is not while they are working as a doctor? Almost 2 out 3 (63%) said yes, with this being a more popular view amongst younger doctors.
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