Just fun or a prejudice? – physician stereotypes in common jokes and their attribution to medical specialties by undergraduate medical students

Abstract

BackgroundMany jokes exist about stereotypical attributes of physicians in various specialties, which could lead to prejudices against physicians from a specific specialty. It is unknown whether and when medical students are aware of stereotypes about different specialties. The goal of this study was to analyze the degree of stereotypes that exist about medical specialties amongst undergraduate medical students at different stages of their education.MethodsOne hundred fifty-two jokes with different content about attributes of physicians from different specialties were found by an internet search. In total, 36 characteristics of the five specialties of anesthesia, general surgery, internal medicine, orthopedics, and psychiatry were extracted from the jokes and they constituted the basis for the development of an online questionnaire. The questionnaire allowed each characteristic to be assigned to one of the five specialties and was sent to 999 undergraduate medical students from semester 1, 7, and 12 at the Medical Faculty of Hamburg University.ResultsThree hundred eight (30.8%) of the invited students completed the survey. The characteristics of general surgeons and psychiatrists were assigned congruently most frequently (>50%). For internists and orthopedics, there was a significantly more congruent assignment of the characteristics by final year students versus students in their first semester. Male students assigned the characteristics of anesthetists and internists significantly more congruently than female students. The three characteristics “…are a bit slow on the uptake”, “…consider income to be relatively unimportant”, and “...apologize a lot” were not assigned to any of the five specialties by more than 50% of the students.ConclusionsWhile stereotypes about physicians from certain specialties seem to exist commonly, medical educators need to be aware that stereotypes about specialties might develop during undergraduate medical training. In order to support students in their professional identity formation without developing stereotypes, medical educators should receive training. Performing a similar study with physicians in postgraduate training would shed some light on stereotypes and prejudices that might develop at a later stage in medical education.

Choice of medical specialty and personality traits measured with the EPQ-R(S) in medical students and specialist doctors

“…In the Polish culture, surgeons are perceived as accurate, secretive and distant, while pediatricians are seen as warm, open and friend-ly. Similarly, in other countries, physicians are attributed particular personality traits and characteristic behaviors depending on their specialty [1]. For the purpose of the article, we have adopted the definition of personality as a set of relatively constant features and psychological dispositions of a given person, distinctive from other individuals [2].…”

Opinions of primary care physicians and psychiatrists on psychiatry and psychiatrists – a comparison

“…Harendza i Pyra [14] przeprowadzili analizę cech charakterystycznych i stereotypów dotyczących specjalizacji lekarskich na podstawie dowcipów. Studenci medycyny 1., 7. i 12. semestru określali, czy wybrane cechy pasują do specjalizacji.…”

“…Autorzy sugerują, że brak zmiany w ocenie wśród studentów z różnych semestrów może sugerować, że stereotypy te są powszechne i mogą pochodzić z książek czy filmów. Obecność stereotypów może wpływać na wybór specjalizacji [14,15], dlatego nauczyciele akademiccy powinni zwrócić uwagę na to, że ich studenci postrzegają ich jako wzorzec dla danej specjalizacji [14,16].…”

“…Harendza and Pyra [14] conducted an analysis of characteristic traits and stereotypes concerning doctoral specializations on the basis of jokes. Medical students in the 1 st , 7 th , and 12 th semesters were asked to decide whether selected traits fitted with particular specializations.…”

“…The authors suggest that the lack of change in the assessment among students of various semesters may suggest that these stereotypes are common and may come from books or movies. The presence of stereotypes may influence the choice of specialization [14,15]; therefore academic teachers should pay attention to the fact that their students also see them as specialists whose career path may be desirable or not [14,16].…”