Fully attached concern: Black women’s professional identity development and advocacy in racialized medical systems

• In Event: 50866 - Race, Families, and Reproductive Health (Co-sponsored by Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities)

Abstract

Black maternal and infant mortality and morbidity is a national health crisis. Although limited, some research suggests that racial concordance, or the ability for Black women and Black babies to be cared for by Black medical staff, can improve outcomes and reduce death rates (Greenwood et al., 2020). Although racial concordance and an increase in Black providers is often touted as a possible solution to the abysmal rate of Black maternal mortality and morbidity in the United States, the limited number of Black maternal health providers means the prospect of finding a Black provider for racially concordant maternal care is low (Okpa et al., 2022) and little is known about the mechanisms underlying racially concordant care. Drawing on in-depth interviews with 15 Black women working as maternal health professionals in medical settings I find that racialized interactions in medical training and a lack of institutional support undermined their sense of belonging in the medical profession. The “othering” experienced during medical training continued into their professional careers: participants expressed consistent tension between their “insider” and “outsider” statuses. Rather than emphasizing their professionalism (Becker 1961) and the norm of “detached concern” (Fox 1988) in patient interactions, participants relied on their lived experience as Black women to a) relate to and form quick connections with their patients, and b) undermine the racist medical treatment they witnessed their Black patients receive. This study contributes to the literature on professionalization in the medical system and the growing body of research on efforts to reduce racism in patient care by exploring the mechanisms through which the lived experiences of medical professionals of color might augment their performance of professional norms.

Author

• Courtney Thornton, Washington University in St. Louis