Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

Objectives:

To investigate the presence of different forms of experiences of discrimination in the medical workplace.

Methods:

A total of 526 questionnaires were sent out, including a demographic survey form and the Everyday Discrimination Scale.

Results:

Experiences of being “treated with less courtesy than other people are” and feeling as “others acted if they’re better than [me]” were reported as having occurred with almost daily frequency by 4.1 % of respondents. Those whose main language was not English and classified as “non-whites” had significantly more experiences (“ever”) of discrimination in the medical workplace. The most commonly reported reasons for discrimination were ancestry (31.3%), “race” (28.1%), and gender (21.1%).

Conclusions:

The results of this survey indicate that a proportion of doctors experience discrimination in the workplace in Australia. This phenomenon was more commonly reported by doctors of minority status.

Keywords

discrimination racism foreign medical graduates workplace

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Corbie-Smith

Frank

Nickens

et al . Prevalences and correlates of ethnic harassment in the U.S. Women Physicians’ Health Study. Acad Med 1999; 74: 695–701.

Coombs

King

. Workplace discrimination: experiences of practicing physicians. J Natl Med Assoc 2005; 97: 467–477.

Blanz

Mummendey

Otten

. Positive–negative asymmetry in social discrimination: the impact of stimulus valence and size and status differentials on intergroup evaluations. Br J Soc Psychol 1995; 34: 409–419.

Peterson

Friedman

Ash

et al . Faculty self-reported experience with racial and ethnic discrimination in academic medicine. J Gen Intern Med 2004; 19: 259–265.

Corbie-Smith

Frank

Nickens

et al . Prevalences and correlates of ethnic harassment in the U.S. Women Physicians’ Health Study. Acad Med 1999; 74: 695–701.

Nunez-Smith

Pilgrim

Wynia

et al . Race/ethnicity and workplace discrimination: results of a national survey of physicians. J Gen Intern Med 2009; 24: 1198–1204.

McKeigue

Richards

. Effects of discrimination by sex and race on the early careers of British medical graduates during 1981–7. BMJ 1990; 301: 961–964.

Esmail

Roberts

. Academic performance of ethnic minority candidates and discrimination in the MRCGP examinations between 2010 and 2012: analysis of data. BMJ 2013; 347: f5662.

Zubaran

. Balancing the act: the international migration of medical graduates. Monash Bioeth Rev 2011; 29: 05.1–12.

10.

Zubaran

. The international migration of health care professionals. Australas Psychiatry 2012; 20: 512–517.

11.

House of Representatives SCoHA. Lost in Labyrinth Report on the enquiry in to registration processes and support for overseas doctors. OTSAN, Canberra, 2012.

12.

Hunte

Williams

. The association between perceived discrimination and obesity in a population-based multiracial and multiethnic adult sample. Am J Public Health 2009; 99: 1285–1292.

13.

Salant

Dillman

. How to conduct your own survey. New York: John Wiley & Sons, 1994.

14.

Fowler

. Survey research methods. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2002.

15.

Visser

Krosnick

Marquette

et al . Mail surveys for election forecasting?: An evaluation of the Columbus dispatch poll. Public Opin Q 1996; 60: 181–227.

16.

Holbrook

Krosnick

Jon

Pfent

Alison

. The causes and consequences of response rates in surveys by the news media and government contractor survey research firms. In: Lepkowski

Tucker

Brick

et al . (eds) Advances in telephone survey methodology, vol 1. New York: Wiley, 2007, pp. 499–528.

17.

Keeter

Kennedy

Dimock

et al . Gauging the impact of growing nonresponse on estimates from a national RDD telephone survey. Public Opin Q 2006; 70: 759–779.

18.

Fox

Thayer

Wadhwa

PD.

Acculturation and health: the moderating role of socio-cultural context. Am Anthropol 2017; 119: 405–421.

19.