Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, UK
Primary Care, Population Sciences and Medical Education, Faculty of Medicine, University of Southampton, Southampton, Hampshire, UK.
BMJ Open. 2021 Dec 24;11(12):e054890. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-054890.
Despite the increasing diversity of UK medical students, students from low-socioeconomic backgrounds, some minority groups and members of communities with protected identities remain under-represented in medicine. In trying to ascertain why this under-representation persists, literature focuses on the barriers and challenges faced by under-represented students as opposed to the institution's responsibility to remove or mitigate these obstacles. One UK University created a reverse mentoring scheme enabling students to mentor senior members of the medical faculty to help them understand the perspectives and experiences of students from minority backgrounds. This paper explores whether changes in staff perceptions of under-represented students resulted from engaging with reverse mentoring.
This qualitative study explored the impact of the reverse mentoring scheme. Staff mentees were required to write a narrative text about the Higher Education journey of an under-represented medical student before and after the reverse mentoring intervention. These texts were compared using discourse analysis to identify shifts in language use that demonstrated a change in perceptions.
The key themes from five senior staff members indicate a positive change in staff characterisation of the students and an acceptance of institutional responsibility for challenges faced. Initial texts revealed a superficial understanding of the student journey that focused on individual deficit but had fairy tale endings depicting the medical school as benevolent. The follow-up texts revealed a deeper understanding reflected by the portrayal of students as capable agents and containing pragmatic endings acknowledging the responsibility of the medical school.
These findings highlight how removed senior staff can be from the reality of the student experience and that engaging with reverse mentoring helps to raise awareness and challenges the students face. This suggests a route for constructive change in medical schools and endorses the benefits of facilitating open discussion around educational inequity.
尽管英国医学生群体的多样性不断增加，但来自社会经济背景较低的学生、一些少数族裔群体以及具有受保护身份的社区成员在医学领域的代表性仍然不足。在试图确定这种代表性不足为何持续存在时，文献主要关注代表性不足的学生所面临的障碍和挑战，而不是机构有责任消除或减轻这些障碍。英国的一所大学创建了一种反向指导计划，使学生能够指导医学专业的资深教师，帮助他们了解来自少数族裔背景的学生的观点和经历。本文探讨了参与反向指导是否会改变教职员工对代表性不足的学生的看法。
这项定性研究探讨了反向指导计划的影响。要求员工指导对象在参与反向指导之前和之后，就代表性不足的医学生的高等教育经历写一篇叙述性文本。使用话语分析比较这些文本，以确定语言使用的变化，这些变化表明看法发生了变化。
来自五名资深员工的主要主题表明，员工对学生的描述发生了积极变化，并接受了机构对所面临挑战的责任。最初的文本对学生经历的理解肤浅，侧重于个人的不足，但都以描绘医学院仁慈的美好结局收尾。后续文本反映了更深入的理解，将学生描绘为有能力的代理人，并以务实的结局承认医学院的责任。
这些发现强调了资深员工可能与学生体验的现实多么脱节，以及参与反向指导有助于提高认识和挑战学生面临的问题。这表明医学院可以采取建设性的变革途径，并认可促进围绕教育不平等问题进行公开讨论的好处。
