“I get to relate to my patients”: Latinx medical students and residents’ navigational capital in medical education

Abstract

While the U.S. Latinx population has rapidly increased in the past 30 years, the number of Latinx physicians has not kept pace. Latinx students are often motivated to pursue medicine to serve those in their communities, which benefits Latinx community health outcomes through patient-clinician cultural and linguistic concordance. However, significant barriers often prevent Latinx people from successfully navigating the transition to and through medical school. This study utilized a qualitative, constructivist approach to investigate the transition to and through medical school and residency to further understand and prevent leakages for aspiring Latinx physicians. Using an assets-based framework of Community Cultural Wealth (CCW), we specifically explored navigational capital, to understand how Latinx learners navigate belonging in medicine. Through semi-structured interviews with 20 Latinx medical students and 14 residents, we found that learners understood and created belonging by navigating help-seeking and the imposter phenomenon through their respective pathways in medicine. Findings from this study may be used to develop support systems and resources to reduce the structural inequalities, barriers, and challenges Latinx students and future physicians encounter through medical education pathways.