Health care professionals? perceptions of unprofessional behaviour in the clinical workplace

Background Unprofessional behaviour undermines organizational trust and negatively affects patient safety, the clinical learning environment, and clinician well-being. Improving professionalism in healthcare organizations requires insight into the frequency, types, sources, and targets of unprofessional behaviour in order to refine organizational programs and strategies to prevent and address unprofessional behaviours. Objective To investigate the types and frequency of perceived unprofessional behaviours among health care professionals and to identify the sources and targets of these behaviours. Methods Data was collected from 2017–2019 based on a convenience sample survey administered to all participants at the start of a mandatory professionalism course for health care professionals including attending physicians, residents and advanced practice providers (APPs) working at one academic hospital in the United States. Results Out of the 388 participants in this study, 63% experienced unprofessional behaviour at least once a month, including failing to respond to calls/pages/requests (44.3%), exclusion from decision-making (43.0%) and blaming behaviour (39.9%). Other monthly experienced subtypes ranged from 31.7% for dismissive behaviour to 4.6% for sexual harassment. Residents were more than twice as likely (OR 2.25, p<0.001)) the targets of unprofessional behaviour compared to attending physicians. Female respondents experienced more discriminating behaviours (OR 2.52, p