Reframing Time: Experiences of First-Generation and Low-Income Medical Students and Residents as Temporal Assets

• In Event: Confronting Hidden Barriers to Inclusivity and Safety in the Learning Environment

Abstract

First-generation and low-income (FGLI) medical students provide important assets to the physician workforce yet face specific challenges in learning cultural academic norms of medical schools, norms embodied through Western, white notions of time. This study seeks to reframe temporal expectations in medical schools through the stories of FGLI medical students and residents, redefining their experiences as temporal assets that are necessary to aid in their retention in the healthcare field. Using critical narrative inquiry, we analyzed the stories of 48 medical students and residents about their understanding of time and produced themes such as the value of family and connections to community as “time well spent.” Reinterpreting temporal tensions as assets can lead to greater change in medical education culture.

Authors

• Tasha R. Wyatt, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences

• Abigail W. Konopasky, Dartmouth College

• Emiko Blalock, Michigan State University