Race impacts professional lives of physicians of Afric...( A new study by researchers at Yale Sch...),Health

A new study by researchers at Yale School of Medicine offers a unique and detailed view of race and discrimination in the health care workplace and the negative impact on job satisfaction, career advancement and minority physician retention.

Published in the January 2 Annals of Internal Medicine, the study explored the role of race in the professional lives of 25 practicing physicians of African, African American and African Caribbean descent. The participants, who varied in age, academic and nonacademic work settings and clinical specialties, and represented all of the six New England states took part in a series of in-depth, in-person interviews.

Each participating doctor was asked the broad question: "How do you think race influences your experiences at work?" Specific questions addressed negative and positive work experiences attributed to race and the influence of race on the physician's career trajectories. They were encouraged to clarify and elaborate on their statements.

"We found that race-consciousness is pervasive in the lives of these physicians. They describe similar experiences regardless of their specialty or where they work," said lead author Marcella Nunez-Smith, M.D., instructor in the Section of General Internal Medicine at Yale and assistant director of the Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholars Program. "As a result, some experience 'racial fatigue,' which describes the emotional and psychological effect of feeling isolated in a work environment in which race regularly influences behavior but is consistently ignored. This can result in greater job dissatisfaction and unplanned career change."

Some participants described race as a positive influence, especially in supportive relationships with some colleagues, minority patients and staff. However, most described the influence as negative. Many said they felt devalued, were held to different performance standards and cast into race-defined roles. Participan
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Contact: Karen N. Peart
karen.peart@yale.edu
203-432-1326
Yale University
2-Jan-2007