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By Katelyn Cooper, PhD
Historically, personal identities were largely unwelcomed in medical education (Lapinski and Sexton, 2014; Jain, 2019). Doctors, physician assistants, and other healthcare professionals discussing their identities, such as gender, race/ethnicity, LGBTQ+ status, or having a disability, was likely discouraged. This is largely because science and medicine are championed as objective disciplines devoid of identities and therefore free of bias (Intemann, 2009).
However, this perception is simply incorrect and can be harmful to the progression of medical discoveries and healthcare more broadly. Healthcare is influenced by the identities of the scientists conducting medical research, the identities of healthcare providers, and the identities of patients.
As a result of the falsehood that identities do not belong in healthcare, medical school applicants (and applicants to other health professions) may feel as though discussing an identity on an application or in an interview is inappropriate, even if the identity is an integral aspect to who they are. However, navigating life experiences with these identities will likely influence how the student ultimately practices medicine, and can be integral to developing competencies valued by graduate programs.
The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has defined core competencies that individuals in their profession benefit from: AAMC’s 15 Core Competencies for Entering Medical Students. Individuals with marginalized or stigmatized identities may have had unique life experiences that have led to them developing some of these core competencies. Three core competencies in particular may be influenced:
Resilience: This refers to one’s ability to quickly recover from stressful situations and implies persisting through setbacks and difficulties. If someone has a stigmatized identity, it likely means they have encountered their own set of challenges related to sexism, racism, heterosexism, ableism, and any number of other -isms. Navigating and persisting through these roadblocks could be a robust example of one’s resilience.
Applicants should consider exactly how their identities have equipped them with qualities such as resilience that will serve them well as they encounter additional stressors within their professional programs and beyond. They should also reflect on whether their particular journey is unique. Having developed these skills early on in their professional career may set them apart from other applicants who have not encountered as many opportunities to demonstrate resilience.
Cultural Competence: This refers to one’s ability to respect and understand cultures and identities different from their own. Holding a marginalized identity can result in a level of empathy for others in marginalized groups and a recognition of the importance of one’s culture.
Having navigated social situations with marginalized identities may also uniquely equip a healthcare provider to quickly grasp important aspects of a patient’s culture, regardless of whether that culture is shared between the patient and the provider. Leveraging cultural knowledge can help healthcare providers treat and communicate with patients more effectively. Applicants should consider whether their own identities have helped them develop cultural competence and how they have demonstrated this knowledge in clinical settings and beyond.
Emotional Intelligence/Social Skills: Understanding emotions, behaviors, needs, goals, and responses of others is integral to communicating effectively with both healthcare colleagues and patients. Research suggests that individuals in minority groups may demonstrate higher emotional intelligence compared to their counterparts in majority groups (Van Rooy et al., 2005). Perhaps it is a lived experience with an identity that is often unaccounted for in day-to-day norms that helps an individual become in tune with how and why others feel the way they do.
Developing emotional intelligence not only leads to higher job satisfaction among healthcare providers (Weng et al., 2011a), but also to stronger patient/provider relationships (Weng et al., 2011b). Therefore, it is unsurprising that the medical community values these skills. Applicants may feel as though this skill comes naturally to them, but upon reflecting may realize that it has been crafted over time owing to their personal experiences.
So, do your identities belong in healthcare? Absolutely. They have likely already helped you develop some of the most valued competencies among healthcare providers. They set you apart from others and equip you with a unique understanding of a particular population of potential patients.
Taking time to consider how each of your identities has shaped you, your view of others, and your development of the core competencies is a great exercise as you prepare for the medical profession. Being able to describe examples of how you’ve demonstrated core competencies, in addition to how you believe you’ve developed them, indicates a high level of metacognition. The strengths that different identities have helped cultivate can be further complemented by a diverse medical team. It is no wonder that diversity leads to better medicine (Gomez et al., 2019).
Katelyn Cooper identifies as a member of the LGBTQ+ community. She was previously an academic advisor for biology students, including pre-med and pre-pa students and now is an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at Arizona State University.
References:
Lapinski J, Sexton P, Baker L. Acceptance of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender patients, attitudes about their treatment, and related medical knowledge among osteopathic medical students. Journal of the American Osteopath Association. 2014, 114(10):788-96.
Jain NR. Political disclosure: resisting ableism in medical education, Disability & Society. 2020, 35(3): 389-412.
Intemann, K. Why Diversity Matters: Understanding and Applying the Diversity Component of the National Science Foundation’s Broader Impacts Criterion, Social Epistemology, 2009. 23:3-4, 249-266.
Van Rooy DL, Alonso A, Viswesvaran C. Group differences in emotional intelligence scores: theoretical and practical implications. Personality and Individual Differences. 2005, 38(13): 689-700.
Weng HC, Hung CM, Liu YT, Cheng YJ, Yen CY, Chang CC, Huang CK. Associations between emotional intelligence and doctor burnout, job satisfaction and patient satisfaction. Medical Education. 2011, 45(8): 835-42.
Weng HC, Steed JF, Yu SW, Liu YT, Hsu CC, Yu TJ, Chen W. The effect of surgeon empathy and emotional intelligence on patient satisfaction. Advances in Health Science Education. 2011, 16(5): 591-600.
Gomez, L. E., Bernet, P. Diversity improves performance and outcomes. Journal of the National Medical Association. 2019, 111(4): 383-392.