Carr Phyllis L, Palepu Anita, Szalacha Laura, Caswell Cheryl, Inui Thomas
Division of General Internal Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA 02118, USA.
Med Educ. 2007 Jun;41(6):601-9. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2923.2007.02771.x.
This paper aims to give voice to the lived experience of faculty members who have encountered racial or ethnic discrimination in the course of their academic careers. It looks at how they describe the environment for minorities, how they manage discrimination and what institutions and majority-member faculty can do to improve medical academe for minority members.
Qualitative techniques were used for semi-structured, in-depth individual telephone interviews, which were audiotaped, transcribed and analysed by reviewers. Themes expressed by multiple faculty members were studied for patterns of connection and grouped into broader categories. A description of the faculty sample is provided, in which respondents ranked the importance of discrimination in hindering academic advancement and used Likert scales to evaluate effects of discrimination. The sample was drawn from 12 of 24 academic medical centres in the National Faculty Survey and included 18 minority-member faculty staff stratified by gender, rank and degree who had experienced, or possibly experienced, work-related discrimination.
Minority faculty described the need to be strongly self-reliant, repeatedly prove themselves, develop strong supports and acquire a wide range of academic skills to succeed. Suggested responses to discrimination were to be cautious, level-headed and informed. Confronting discriminatory actions by sitting down with colleagues and raising the level of awareness were important methods of dealing with such situations.
Academic medical centres may need to make greater efforts to support minority faculty and improve understanding of the challenges confronting such faculty in order to prevent the loss and/or under-utilisation of important talent.
本文旨在表达在学术生涯中遭遇种族或民族歧视的教员的生活经历。探讨他们如何描述少数群体的环境，如何应对歧视，以及机构和多数群体教员可以采取哪些措施来改善医学学术界中少数群体成员的处境。
采用定性技术进行半结构化的深度个人电话访谈，访谈进行录音、转录并由评审人员进行分析。研究多名教员表达的主题，以找出其中的联系模式，并将其归为更广泛的类别。提供了教员样本的描述，其中受访者对歧视在阻碍学术进步方面的重要性进行了排序，并使用李克特量表评估歧视的影响。该样本取自全国教员调查中24个学术医疗中心中的12个，包括18名少数群体教员，他们按性别、职级和学位分层，曾经历或可能经历过与工作相关的歧视。
少数群体教员表示，要想取得成功，需要强烈的自力更生，反复证明自己，建立强大的支持体系，并掌握广泛的学术技能。应对歧视的建议是要谨慎、冷静且明智。与同事坐下来直面歧视行为并提高认识水平是应对此类情况的重要方法。
学术医疗中心可能需要做出更大努力来支持少数群体教员，并增进对这类教员所面临挑战 的理解，以防止重要人才的流失和/或未得到充分利用。
