Audiology Student Perspectives on Experiencing Bigotry from Patients

By Kris English, Saunja T. Burt, and M. Dawn Nelson

This article is a part of the March/April 2022, Volume 34, Number 2, Audiology Today issue. 

Some students may experience verbal abuse from bigoted patients, which may result in long-lasting physical and emotional harm (English et al, 2021). Student clinicians may be reluctant to report these events, but preceptors have a duty of care to protect students when patients demean them with racialized comments (Hamilton, 2020).

As uncomfortable as this topic is, it still must be addressed. An essential first step is to collect data on trainee experiences with patient bigotry. To date, most existing data has been obtained from medical and nursing students (Osseo-Asare et al, 2018; de Bourmont et al, 2020; Hill et al, 2020). 

This article describes a preliminary survey of students and practitioners of color designed to learn about their experiences with patient bigotry. As described in the invitation to participate: “The purpose of this survey is to obtain useful information on what audiology and speech-language pathology students of color and other marginalized groups are experiencing in clinical settings and ways preceptors and supervisors can take action. Very little data is available on the student experience and it is our hope that we capture that in this survey.”

Participants

Saunja T. Burt, a coauthor of this article, developed a convenience sample by inviting members of three Facebook special-interest groups to participate in the survey: Black Audiologists United, Sisters in Speech Therapy and Audiology (SISTAs), and Progressives in Audiology. Two additional online groups also were approached: current audiology students who meet through GroupMe (a free group-messaging app) and practicing Black audiologists and speech-language pathologists on an informal email list.

How can preceptors/supervisors be an ally or provide support?