What is Unspoken: The Discomfort Experienced by Pediatric Resident Physicians Delivering Racially Discordant Clinical...

A diverse physician workforce is imperative to addressing health inequities, but few physicians identify as Black or Hispanic. Therefore, this study used the social constructionism framework to explore pediatric residents' perceptions of race in medical encounters. A qualitative study of 47 trainees at a tertiary care center revealed the following: (1) racism, not race, influences health; (2) trainee perceptions around race create feelings of discomfort during some racially discordant patient encounters, while they were a source of comfort for trainees of color during concordant encounters; and (3) trainee perceptions around race in racially discordant clinical encounters may result in a change in clinical practice. While participants expressed awareness that racism drives health disparities, they had limited understanding of how their interactions might further perpetuate disparate health outcomes for patients of color. This emphasizes the need to support anti-racism competencies in medical education and increase workforce diversity in health care.