October In This Issue

In this article, Danquah explores the hidden impact of ethnicity categorisation in healthcare. He acknowledges the argument that data support justice through highlighting inequalities. However, he also discusses evidence that such efforts may be hampered by the data being not only ‘dodgy’, but also dehumanising. Danquah uses lived experience of filling in ethnicity data surveys as a person of ‘mixed’ heritage, arguing that it is the mixed category that most readily highlights the deficiencies in this approach. He goes on to discuss the tensions between mitigating the damage and dispensing with ethnicity categorisation altogether, before sharing ways to rehumanise the data and conceive of ourselves and those we serve more fully.

Danquah, A. Pigeonholes and Johari Windows: Rehumanising Ethnicity Categorisation in Healthcare. Med Educ. 2024; 58(10): 1178-1184. 10.1111/medu.15395.

Cleland and colleagues scrutinise how six new UK medical schools translated government policy on widening participation (WP) to medicine, to increase the diversity of medical students, into practice. Via semi-structured interviews with Deans and Admissions staff, they found similarities and differences across the six schools. For example, some schools found themselves increasingly subjected to local and extra-local rule systems. There were also tensions between the new medical schools and the medical education “establishment”. They concluded that different contexts seem to influence the enactment of WP to medicine even in medical schools established at the same time.

Cleland, J, Buxton, J, Hughes, L, Patterson, F. Translating government policy into practice: How new UK medical schools enact widening participation. Med Educ. 2024; 58(10): 1247-1256. 10.1111/medu.15403.

This paper describes the experiences of female medical students and doctors in the clinical workplace in a Scottish hospital. The socio-cultural dynamics in the selected wards are revealed through an ethnographic exploration involving observations and interviews. The authors use Bourdieu's theory, with its core concepts of field, capital, and habitus to interpret the participants' experiences and perspectives. Despite constituting the majority demographic of medical school, female students and doctors struggle to gain capital, and the differential experiences contribute to transforming their habitus. Their role-models, however, contributed to building confidence and self-efficacy, which proved valuable in navigating the gendered social order.

Gupta, S, Howden, S, Moffat, M, Pope, L, Kennedy, C. Girls in Scrubs: An ethnographic exploration of the clinical learning environment. Med Educ. 2024; 58(10): 1224-1234. 10.1111/medu.15379.

This paper discusses some of the problems that exist related to the unintended consequences of dominant culture in medical education. It then elaborates on the solutions that will be helpful in better understanding and researching these issues using critical ethnography as a research methodology. The purpose of critical ethnography is to unpack, identify, and make visible the invisible. This methodology is about questioning dominant ways of thinking and enacting positive change in training and practices to enhance inclusivity and fairness for all.

Rashid, M, Goldszmidt, M. Critical Ethnography: Implications for Medical Education Research and Scholarship. Med Educ. 2024; 58(10): 1185-1191. 10.1111/medu.15401.