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Neutralizing differences: producing neutral doctors for (almost) neutral patients

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  • Beagan, Brenda L.

Abstract

Today 50% of medical students in Canada are women; they come from a wide range of racial, cultural, academic, and class backgrounds; they may openly identify as gay or lesbian. Yet to the extent that professional socialization produces uniformity of values, attitudes and future practice styles, the impact of increasing diversity is lessened. Based on a survey with undergraduate medical students, interviews with 25 students, and interviews with 23 faculty members and administrators at one Canadian medical school, this paper argues that there are impetuses within medical education toward the production of socially-neutral physicians: Student-physicians are encouraged to believe that the social class, 'race', ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation of a physician is not -- and should not be -- relevant during physician-patient interactions. In short, intentional and unintentional homogenizing influences in their training work to neutralize the impact of increasing social differences among medical students.

Suggested Citation

  • Beagan, Brenda L., 2000. "Neutralizing differences: producing neutral doctors for (almost) neutral patients," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 51(8), pages 1253-1265, October.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:51:y:2000:i:8:p:1253-1265
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    Citations

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    Cited by:

    1. Leyerzapf, Hannah & Verdonk, Petra & Ghorashi, Halleh & Abma, Tineke A., 2018. "“We are all so different that it is just … normal.” Normalization practices in an academic hospital in the Netherlands," Scandinavian Journal of Management, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 141-150.
    2. MacFife, Bex, 2022. "“There is no standard vulva”: Sanitized vs. contextualized instruction of hands-on medical skills," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 297(C).
    3. Beagan, Brenda L. & MacLeod, Anna & Owen, Michelle & Pride, Tara M. & Sibbald, Kaitlin R., 2022. "Lower-class origin professionals in Canadian health and social service professions: “A different level of understanding”," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 309(C).
    4. Babaria, Palav & Abedin, Sakena & Berg, David & Nunez-Smith, Marcella, 2012. "“I'm too used to it”: A longitudinal qualitative study of third year female medical students' experiences of gendered encounters in medical education," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(7), pages 1013-1020.
    5. Hoang, Ha & Perkmann, Markus, 2023. "Physician entrepreneurship: A study of early career physicians’ founding motivations and actions," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 339(C).
    6. Keshet, Yael & Popper-Giveon, Ariela, 2017. "Neutrality in medicine and health professionals from ethnic minority groups: The case of Arab health professionals in Israel," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 174(C), pages 35-42.

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