Junior female doctors are being advised to wear ‘doctor’ badges to stop them being misidentified by patients and other healthcare staff.
Role misidentification is a universal and stressful problem for female physicians in training, according to the authors of a US study that found 100% of female residents reported being regularly misidentified by patients and their families.
The survey of 112 internal medicine residents at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, found that 50% of junior doctors overall reported experiencing role misidentification on a daily or weekly basis, with female residents almost four times more likely than males [risk ration 3.63) to be misidentified as a non-physician.
All female residents (100%) and 45% of male residents reported being misidentified by patients and their families. Female residents were also more likely to be misidentified by nurses (82% misidentified vs 18% of male residents); support staff (70% vs 15%), other residents (42% vs 5%) and attending physicians (35% vs 7% of males).
Writing in JAMA Internal Medicine, the study authors said the high rates of gender-based role misidentification show that female residents are still being evaluated by patients and other staff according to stereotypes.
Misidentification is a threat to good patient care and also leads to loss of credibility for female doctors, they said.