Have you ever heard a doctor from one specialty bash or badmouth another specialty? We have, too. Specialty disrespect is a form of microaggression in the health care community, and it has a real impact on students, residents and our patients. But we have the power to change the culture, and it’s time to address this issue.
All of us in medicine have heard badmouthing or career choice bullying at some point. It affects as many as 80% of medical students, and it impacts all specialties–-although the most commonly targeted specialties are family medicine, general surgery, psychiatry and internal medicine.
Specialty disrespect continues into residency and beyond: residents may be on the receiving end when they call consults in the hospital, and it may affect their training in certain procedures when rotating on other services. By the first year of professional practice, what used to be students’ perceptions can unfortunately carry over to become clinicians’ perceptions.
Why do we do this to each other, when medical school and residency are already tough enough? Studies of specialty disrespect have found that a combination of factors lead to badmouthing other medical specialties: lack of awareness about what different specialties are or the challenges they face; a desire to “fit in”; ego; personal insecurities; jealousy; implicit bias; and frustration, stress, or burnout.
We must change the culture, because career choice bullying has a real impact:
- It affects medical students’ career choices.
- It perpetuates a culture of secrecy amongst students, because they may be afraid to discuss their decision-making or share their specialty choice with their peers.
- Students witnessing disrespectful communication are more likely to experience stress, depression and substance misuse.
Medicine is more than a job: it’s a vocation, and specialty disrespect can affect our professional and personal identities.
We’d also love to hear your stories. Have you seen, or been on the receiving end of, career choice bullying? Leave your comments on this month’s Primary Care RAP episode covering specialty disrespect.
Hippo’s medical education strives to build positive practices within the clinical community. Here’s to bias-free rotations, sound career decisions and better mental health.
Source: Georgetown School of Medicine https://som.georgetown.edu/diversityequityandinclusion/studentorganizations/specialty-respect/
For a deeper dive, listen to this episode on the Primary Care RAP podcast.
