myfirstloveisfood

As a medical student, the Larry Nassar case has brought me to contemplate how flaws in professional and personal conduct sometimes go unnoticed or unchecked throughout a person's early professional life until their career matures to place them in a position of power where it can be difficult for people to do something about them. A relative of mine told me about a conversation he had with a former classmate of Nassar who said she wasn't at all surprised by what he did, because he demonstrated similar behavior/disrespect towards women while he was in medical school.

I've noticed that many of these people who honestly shouldn't be doctors anyways tend to torpedo their own career early on (eg recently, a student was arrested on arms/drug charges who was also reported by fellow students to have been running a secret neo-nazi blog). However, there are others who demonstrate sufficient charm and social awareness to hide red flags well enough from people who could prevent them from advancing in their career. I have a classmate who has disgusting attitudes towards women and other races, but knows better than to behave in a way that can get him reported. I can see him in Nassar's position a few decades down the road. Usually, their peers are aware of these problems because they interact with these individuals on a regular basis, but professional complaints by colleagues are often ignored and administration is either unaware or uncaring to do something about it until something big happens.

What do you think the role of medical education should be in preventing individuals like Larry Nassar from reaching positions of power? How can doctors better check the behaviors of their peers?

sexual harassment can be a "gateway drug" for doctors who will later go on to sexual assault and molest patients

I can believe this. Fortunately, my school has a proactive policy on peer reporting of harassment, and I have seen it work at the level of medical students. However, higher up the career ladder, this protection seems to diminish. There is a surgeon at one of our clinical sites who will allow female med students scrub in on his cases "if they're attractive enough" among other sexist behavior, but he's a big wig at the hospital and it's daunting for students to report someone so much higher on the professional ladder. It seems he has become established enough to feel he can behave this way with impunity.

Sexual harassment and improper professional conduct is taken seriously when we're med students. I wonder why this expectation seems to fall for older doctors?

Idk, I’ve seen a post or two that said Fuck China, and then OP proceeded to engage in multiple very racist comments not limited to the government, arguing against posters who asked him to clarify if he really meant “fuck Chinese people” or “fuck Chinese government” that there’s no difference between the two: had 90+% upvotes last I saw

It's relatively distant and out of sight, out of mind.

Your typical American is aware of certain atrocities committed by their government abroad (fueling war in the Middle East) and on domestic territory (parent-child separation at the Mexican border) but honestly, does the average American do anything about it? Maybe cluck in disapproval a bit when they hear about it, but generally you go on with your daily lives. A rare few may do something more concrete, like protest or organize, but the vast majority just aren't affected by it and don't care enough to act.

The same happens everywhere in the world. People generally are most concerned about their own lives.

Thanks for the lousy avoidant non-answer to this question most of the still-active players on neo want to know.

I am the very last of my large number of neofriends who quit because this horribly-managed site is truly running on borrowed time.