Medical Student Experiences

This chapter presents case studies of medical students being exposed in the clinical setting to microaggressions. The physician team is made of many members. The medical student is the most junior member and therefore the most vulnerable. The risk of being in a position where a more senior and perhaps more dominant member of the team feels comfortable sharing their biases through microaggressions shared with the team is very real. As these encounters are rarely monitored, individuals might be more comfortable or relaxed in expressing inappropriate views. This chapter will review specific instances of microaggressions with consideration of attitudes and assumptions of the senior as well as the junior member of the team, gaps in provider knowledge, cross-cultural tools/skills, and pearls and pitfalls. The specific examples will consider gender-based microaggression, sexual orientation-based microaggression, and racially based microaggression. We hope that this discussion can provide tools to the student that can help them navigate these difficult situations.