Study: race affects the professional lives of african american doctors

Researchers at the Yale School of Medicine recently conducted a survey that examined the role of race in the professional lives of 25 Black physicians of different ages and medical specialties residing in the New England area. The results of the study present a detailed view of the roles of race and discrimination in the healthcare workplace and their negative affect on career advancement, job satisfaction, and minority physician retention.

The study broadly examined the question of how race influences work experiences, and each participating physician was encouraged to elaborate and clarify their responses. The study revealed that:

• Race-consciousness was pervasive in the lives of each of the participating physicians. Some experienced “racial fatigue,” which was described as “the emotional and psychological effect of feeling isolated in a work environment in which race regularly influences behavior but is consistently ignored.” Racial fatigue can result in high levels of job dissatisfaction and unplanned career changes.

• Though some of the African American physician participants felt that race was a positive influence with certain colleagues and minority patients, most felt it was a negative influence. Many of the Black physicians surveyed felt that they were held to different performance standards and pigeonholed into race-defined roles. Some patients who needed care but felt that an African American could not do a good job even rejected help from some of the survey participants.

• Participants felt like they were ignored and left out of social situations and key information networks that might lead to promotion because of their race.

If this survey is representative of the overall experiences Black physicians, something needs to be done to minimize the influence of race in the medical profession and help increase opportunities for minority physicians to move into positions of more responsibility and influence. There is a unique opportunity in health care to improve the health of patients by increasing the amount of minority doctors, because minorities are much more likely to seek care from minority physicians. Health care is an industry where increased diversity will have a near immediate and visible effect on the lives of patients.