Reflexivity and positionality applied to medical practice: an experimental study on implicit gender bias with medical students in a Swiss university

Abstract Background An array of evidence shows how the presence of implicit bias in clinical encounters can negatively impact provider-patient communication, quality of care and ultimately contribute to health inequities. Reflexive practice has been explored as an approach to identify and address implicit bias in healthcare providers, including medical students. At the Lausanne School of Medicine, a clinically integrated module was introduced in 2019 to raise students’ awareness of gender bias in medical practice using a reflexivity and positionality approach. The purpose of this study is to describe the gender bias that were identified by medical students, analysing their types, places and modes of emergence during a clinical encounter. It further explores how positionality supported students’ reflexion on the way in which social position modulates their relationship to patients. Methods As part of the teaching activity, medical students individually reflected on gender bias in a specific clinical encounter by answering questions in their electronic portfolio. The questionnaire included a section on positionality. We qualitatively analysed the students’ assignments, applying a thematic analysis framework (n = 76). Results Medical students identified and described gender biases occurring at different moments of the clinical encounter (anamnesis (i.e. patient history), physical exam, differential diagnosis, final management). They causally associated these biases with wider social phenomenon such as the gendered division of labour or stereotypes around sexuality and gender. Analysing how students reflected on how their position influenced their relationship with patients, we found that the suggested exercise revealed a major contradiction in the process of medical enculturation: the injunction to be neutral and objective erases the social and cultural context of patients and prevents an understanding of gender bias. Conclusion Gender bias are present in the different steps of a clinical consultation and are rooted in broader gendered social representations. We further conclude that the tension between a quest for objectivity and the reality of social encounters should be made explicit to students, because it is constitutive of medical practice.