by Dr Agalya Ramanathan
Whilst clinical placements in general practice continue to be rated highly by medical students, unfortunately, some students report experiencing or witnessing discrimination whilst on placement, which may lead to them feeling excluded, disengaged and experiencing poor wellbeing and mental health issues.
Students affected have reported being unsure about who to go to for support and concern about what will happen if they do seek support. The BMA has created a racial harassment charter for medical schools which Imperial, along with many other universities, has signed up to. Two key aspects include supporting individuals to speak out, as evidence suggests students rarely do, and addressing racial harassment in placements.
We have developed resources and training for our GP tutors on supporting students experiencing discrimination during their clinical placements. These include a video for GP tutors which includes student and tutor perspectives on how best to support students and further resources for tutors to access and share with students. The video can be viewed here:
Supporting students experiencing discrimination during GP placements.
In the video, Thivya Gangatharan, a medical student, shares her view that “If a student were to come to a GP tutor, and talk about their experiences of discrimination…one thing that would really really help would be just to have that space, just to provide space to talk about what it is they are reflecting on. Because… that’s really the first step to tackling discrimination. Having spaces where we can acknowledge that it happens and from then on, thinking about raising it further”
At our Annual Teachers Conference on 9th June, we will be facilitating a workshop titled “What can we do to support students who experience discrimination in primary care teaching settings? All our GP tutors are invited to attend. We are also planning a half-day training course on this topic for GP tutors. We hope these resources will be helpful for our tutors in ensuring our students feel supported.
Please see our website https://www.imperial.ac.uk/school-public-health/primary-care-and-public-health/teaching/undergrad/atc/2023/ to book onto the Annual Teachers’ Conference.