Rights to education, social security, and employment among medical residents according to sex

Abstract

Introduction: Gender inequalities when training medical residents affect their well-being and enjoyment of their rights to decent work, education, and personal safety.

Objective: We aimed to explore differences in the enjoyment of the rights to decent work, education, and personal safety according to sex, specialty, and year of residency in a public university located in Mexico.

Method: We conducted a cross-sectional, observational, and descriptive study on 823 residents. The DERES scale, which assesses the enjoyment of the rights to decent work, education, and personal safety, was used. The Mann-Whitney U and chi-square tests were used to assess significant differences.

Results: Overall, there were no differences in the percentage of residents enjoying their rights to decent work, education, or personal safety. Particularly, there are items with significant differences: female participants from surgical specialties reported less supervision and greater anxiety regarding decent work and personal safety (p <0.05), while for non-surgical specialties, male participants reported they made more diagnostic errors due to lack of supervision and clinical skills (p <0.05).

Conclusions: Gender-differentiated policies are needed to strengthen resident’s enjoyment of their rights to education, decent work, and personal safety. Higher education institutions must guarantee a fairer and a more equitable environment for medical training.