Experiences with and reporting racism during medical school

To help create an inclusive environment, it is important to understand the experience of racism from medical students. The purpose of this study was to 1) Understand the experience of racism from medical students at two geographically similar medical schools but one being a Predominately White Institution (PWI) and the other a Historically Black College and University (HBCU), 2) Recognize similarities and differences in the racism students experience, and 3) Explore why students do not report the experienced racism.

Third- and fourth-year medical students from HBCU and PWI medical schools were recruited via e-mail for this phenomenological qualitative study. Consent and demographic data were collected via Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap). Focus groups and one-on-one interviews were conducted via virtual platform by a trained moderator. Transcriptions of the recordings were analyzed by the research team to code and establish themes. The research team collected enough data that, when analyzed, provided sufficiency of information.

Four focus groups and 9 one-on-one interviews were conducted with 23 total participants. Students from both medical schools raised 7 common themes and 2 sub-themes involving sources of racism, negative effects of racism, coping mechanisms, and opportunities to combat racism. Students from the HBCU discussed the positive effects of having faculty who share racial concordance with learners. Students from the PWI discussed experiences with racism from attendings. Students from both institutions discussed a fear of reprisal and a sense of futility as barriers to reporting racism.

Our study provides a deeper understanding of students' perspectives of their experiences with racism during their medical education. These insights may support interventions medical schools can take to be anti-racist and inclusive.