The federal government has not yet released the findings of the audit that was completed last year of more than 8000 curriculums at 123 institutions responsible for educating every accredited healthcare and allied health practitioner. The Health Department said the report was undergoing quality assurance checks, which have taken longer than expected to complete.
But Professor Bronwyn Graham, who led the audit, said the key issue was that too often students were not being told that the course content – presented as gender-neutral – was based on evidence developed using males.
“Male subjects, male presentations, risk factors and responses”, said Graham, director of the Centre for Sex and Gender Equity in Health and Medicine. “The assumption that students take away is this is just what we do for all patients.”
As a result, women’s pain is much more likely to be dismissed or denied, while men are more likely to be believed, Graham said.
Doctor and medical philosophy researcher Lea Merone has similar concerns. Her 2024 analysis of six textbooks recommended by Australian medical schools found all implied women and men had the same symptoms for the analysed diseases.
To fix the curriculums, Australia’s gold standard clinical guidelines – which cover everything from anaesthesia to lung cancer – needed updating, Graham said.
Meanwhile, work was finally under way to develop pelvic pain management guidelines, redressing a glaring oversight considering chronic pelvic pain affects up to one in four Australian women.
The decades-old mnemonics doctors and nurses were once taught to remember the 12 cranial nerves
Doctors:“Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Virgin Girl’s Vagina And Hymen”
Nurses:“Oh Oh Oh To Touch And Feel Very Good Velvet, Ah Heaven”