Table 3.
Examples of Micro- and Macroaggression as Described by Participants
| Participant characteristic | ||
|---|---|---|
| Microaggression examples | “Some of the nurses would always second guess or question my choices…. But when my co-intern who has the same experience as me [but different race] would suggest something, they would take it face value.” | Trainee |
| “On my anesthesia rotation… one of the first things [the patient] said to me was, ‘You know, don’t give me the Asian treatment.’ [He meant] Euthanasia.” | Trainee | |
| “Oh, you’re Chinese. No wonder you’re a doctor, you know those people, they’re really smart.” | Faculty | |
| “Where are you from…. No, where are you really from?” | Faculty | |
| “I had a patient whom I’ve been taking care for 5 years call me Dr. Kim [because I’m Asian and that is a common Asian last name] on multiple occasions.” | Faculty | |
| “…been times where people say like, ‘Oh, your English is so good.’ I say ‘Well, I was born here.’” | Trainee | |
| “A patient sees me at the elevator and asks, ‘Do you know [doctor]?’…the only thing we had in common was that we’re both Asian females.” | Trainee | |
| “They’ll assume I’m a nurse or …not [the] senior physician…if there’s a resident physician…with me [who’s] male, they’ll assume he’s the supervising doctor… Even though my introduction is like, ‘Hi, I'm Dr. X. I’m the supervising doctor.’” | Faculty | |
| “The screeners at the door they never think I’m a doctor. They always think I’m a patient…every day, from the second I walk in….” | Faculty | |
| “I’ve had many interactions with male parents who…it’s variable but it’s usually immigrant families or different cultures, where they do not respond to a female medical [provider’s] recommendations. But if a male fellow, attending, or resident comes in, they respond differently.” | Faculty | |
| “I also feel like patients and families often look to the tallest, male, white person in the room, whenever we go …see patients on rounds, as the faculty.” | Faculty | |
| “I have a patient who calls me by my first name….not my full first name, like…my shortened first name, which I never use. I don’t know if it’s a gender thing or if it’s a race thing.” | Faculty | |
| Macroaggression examples | “The attending yelled at me in front of the nurse anesthetist and the other students in the room, like ‘What do you think you’re doing?!’” | Trainee |
| “He proceeded to yell at me over the phone, tell me I was being ridiculous, overreacting, didn’t know how to do a physical exam. He didn’t know whether I should be a doctor.” | Trainee | |
| “An attending…came into the room and said ‘[Participant’s name], come with me,’ and he wagged his finger at me.…he said, ‘You’re never going to learn anything by sitting in that room all day. You’ve missed things all day because you’ve been in that room… you need to be a fly on the wall and pay attention,” which obviously was really embarrassing and surprising…this patient wasn’t on my team. It’s not like I was sitting in the room chit chatting and emailing or whatever….” | Trainee | |
| “She just yelled, ‘Hey, Oriental girl!’ down the hallway to address me and then pulled me into a room and proceeded to yell at me.” | Faculty | |
| “The man asked me what my name was…I pointed to my name tag and told him my name. He then said, ‘Nah, that can’t be your name. It’s not Oriental enough.’” | Faculty |