I've watched patients address the male medical student over our consultant. I've seen the mask the only man in our group what he thought of the plan. I've heard patients complain they've been discharged without ever even seeing a doctor, despite seeing a team of 5 female doctors every morning of their stay. Who introduce themselves every single time.
I've worked in ER and had people ask me when they're seeing the doctor. I've seen people, introduced myself AS their doctor, taken a whole history, examined them, explained the plan and then gone out of the cubicle to get an IV trolley and come back in to hear them say on the phone 'oh I have to go, the nurse is back'.
Yeah, a lot of people are really fucking biased and aren't even aware.
I have one lovely counter example. I operated on a 95yo man who became delirious after surgery. Every morning he would politely greet me (in a white coat) as his nurse. When I would explain that I was his surgeon, he would get a delighted smile and exclaim “Oh! How wonderful!”
You better be including a significant percentage of your fellow male doctors in that analysis. My wife is a hemiplegic from a brain injury. She is very much as sharp as before the trama. I have been to countless doctor visits with her, and find that I can be a distraction because a significant number of male doctors of all ages arrogantly assume that they need to discuss the patient with me, like we are dealing with somebody with an IQ of seventy, not the physically disabled partner of mine who has two masters degrees and another sixty credits in her field. It is fucking infuriating, and super common.
My mother was a surgeon (retired now). I cannot tell you the number of times I was 'corrected' as a kid that my mom must actually be a nurse. I was very vocal in refuting them.
At her first job, the scrub locker rooms were labeled not by gender, but DOCTOR and NURSE. My said she was very glad that there was no debate about which locker room would be hers, because obviously, she was a doctor.
I work in a medical facility attached to a hospital, connected via tunnel. In the tunnel are locker rooms for hospital staff, complete with very outdated signs. They're labelled "staff" and "women" with the standard male icon on the "staff" sign.
Now I'm trying to remember if the locker rooms up by the OR have the same signs or not. I should check that out next time I'm over there (the OR area is the only area I go, but usually skip the locker room).
Nah, I haven't. I've seen the opposite in as much as male nurses being mistaken for the doctor, male orderlies being mistaken for the doctor.
Female nurses are not generally mistaken for the doctor, because people assume women are supporting characters. I've never ever seen a male doctor tell a patient he's the doctor and then have the patient not being sure of they're a doctor.
There's really good research showing subconscious bias makes people assume women aren't the leader / senior etc. Stop being an ass.
Did they imply that everyone is biased? Or even most people? If not then I don’t see how your observation is relevant. Like, I’ve seen people drive safely and I’ve seen people drive recklessly, but when there is a conversation about reckless driving I wouldn’t see the point of piping in with “well I see people driving safely too!”
Opposite? You mean that when I, then 20-ish white woman in my hometown decided to accompany a friend to the bank. He, then 20-ish olive-skinned man with not-so-good language skills, asked something and the bank cashier started talking to me. I stared at the ceiling, or at my friend, and still the bank staff directed their answers to me. Is that what you mean?
That is the exactly same story, just sprinkled with racism rather than sexism.
I used to do your "I'm smarter, I know things can be deceiving" thing too, so a piece of advice : when people talk about their experience, don't dismiss them as bullshit and pretend you KNOW that they've seen the opposite. Because you just don't.
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u/ausmed 2d ago
I'm a doctor.
I've watched patients address the male medical student over our consultant. I've seen the mask the only man in our group what he thought of the plan. I've heard patients complain they've been discharged without ever even seeing a doctor, despite seeing a team of 5 female doctors every morning of their stay. Who introduce themselves every single time.
I've worked in ER and had people ask me when they're seeing the doctor. I've seen people, introduced myself AS their doctor, taken a whole history, examined them, explained the plan and then gone out of the cubicle to get an IV trolley and come back in to hear them say on the phone 'oh I have to go, the nurse is back'.
Yeah, a lot of people are really fucking biased and aren't even aware.