Belittlement and harassment of medical students

Editor—As a student, and even more often as a junior doctor, I have been told repeatedly that the first step to learning is to accept ignorance—and what better time to accept ignorance than when asked something you do not know.¹ One professor I trained with always said, “I can tolerate a hundred I don't knows but not one guess.” If a student feels belittled and bullied would it not be imperative to speak to his or her mentor and try to address their concerns? Students have as much a duty to learn as a senior has a duty to teach. It is when these two rhyme that makes teaching effective.

Mistakes made as a student should be a stepping stone to learning, as mentioned by Samuel Smiles: “It is a mistake to suppose that men succeed through success; they much oftener succeed through failures. Precept, study, advice, and example could never have taught them so well as failure has done.”²