DOI: 10.46298/fajpc.19428 ISSN: 3130-334X

Non-take-up of institutional support for medical students experiencing violence or discrimination during their studies: a study protocol

Laura Darche, Marie-Paule Gustin, Pauline Riguet, Marc Chanelière, Trystan Bacon
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Introduction. Medical students frequently experience violence and discrimination during their studies. These experiences may lead to psychosocial distress, influence their choice of specialty or even result in career abandonment. Students who are victims of such acts can report them in order to gain institutional protection. Despite the high prevalence of violence and discrimination experienced during training, there are occurrences of medical students who fail to seek institutional protection. Political science identifies three main forms of non-take-up of rights and services: lack of awareness, decision not to claim, and non-receipt.Aim. To determine the relative proportion of the different forms of non-take-up of institutional protection among medical students who are victims of violence or discrimination during their studies.Method. A national, multicenter, descriptive cross-sectional study conducted using a self-administered online questionnaire. An original questionnaire was designed. The expertise of general practice faculty members was sought in designing the 90-item questionnaire. The questionnaire was tested as part of a pilot study. It is sent to students pursuing the Diploma of Specialized Studies (DES) in General Practice in France. Descriptive and analytical statistical analyses, including univariate and multivariate analyses as well as logistic regression, supplemented by an inductive thematic analysis of the qualitative data are carried out. The French College of Academic General Practitioners is the study sponsor. A research ethics committee issued a favorable opinion.Discussion. Determining the relative proportion of the different forms of non-take-up of institutional protection among medical students who are victims of violence or discrimination enable the academic community to identify the most appropriate courses of action according to their needs: raising awareness of the available support mechanisms, removing individual and collective barriers to reporting violence and discrimination, or improving the institutional response to such reports.

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