Exploration on the degree of compliance with the rights of medical residents in Mexico

Abstract

Introduction: Despite legislation guaranteeing the rights of resident doctors, there are practices that go against these regulations. Mistreatment and violence suffered by resident doctors have been documented, but there are few studies from a legal perspective.

Objective: to determine the degree of compliance with the rights of resident doctors according to current regulations in Mexico.

Method: an online survey was applied to resident physicians on different topics related to their academic and work environment, experiences of violence and knowledge and exercise of their rights such as knowledge of their training program, medical assistance, support for care and others. We constructed a rights compliance index based on seven dimensions.

Results: 678 resident physicians answered the survey. Deficiencies were observed in the fulfillment of the rights of those in residency. Problems were identified in knowledge of the program, medical assistance, support for patient care, violence by peers or superiors, supervision, and observance of basic rights. The rights compliance index showed that 33.7% of residents had a rights compliance index of .5 or lower.

Discussion: the results are consistent with what is reported in various studies documenting different forms of mistreatment and abuse experienced by residents.

Conclusions: measures are needed to combat violence and ensure compliance with established rights. The main limitation of this research is the non-random nature of the sample. However, the results show the need for further research.