Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital
Grant Details
EmpowerHER: Cultivating Upstander Skills Against Bullying Women in Medicine Experience
The Nationwide Children’s Hospital (NCH’s) Department of Pediatrics’ mission is to promote excellence in teaching, research, academics, advocacy, and administrative service to provide the most effective, efficient, and compassionate medical care. Within the Department of Pediatrics, the Center for Faculty Development is dedicated to supporting all faculty’s professional development across all career stages by fostering professional identity development, academic achievement, and a culture of engagement through several programs, including Women in Medicine and Science and other mentorship groups.
Women remain underrepresented in academic medicine, particularly at senior levels. One possible explanation for this disparity is gender-based microaggressions, of which bullying is the most harmful form. Although gender-based bullying relationships may occur between men and women or between women themselves, the characteristics of these relationships and experiences remain unknown. This mixed methods study aims to support NCH’s mission of excellence through professional development by determining the extent to which women in academic medicine have encountered microaggressions, including bullying, and then develop and implement educational curricula fostering upstander skills to address this issue.
The study will implement the use of a screening survey to determine the overall proportion of microaggressions experienced by women in medicine (Part 1). Participants reporting gender-based mistreatment will be invited to participate in Part 2, the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R), which will identify participants who experienced bullying. These individuals will be purposively sampled and offered participation in a 30-minute semi-structured, audio-recorded phone interview (Part 3). Physicians will be involved in every step of this project, from study design to subject participation. Parts 1-3 of the project will occur in 2021-2022.