Virtual Journal Club--Week of October 24, 2016

The following article, "My Name is not 'Interpreter'" was brought to my attention by Dr. Onaiza Ansar, of HealthPartners West Clinic. The topic is "microaggressions", or as I think of them, the commonplace thoughtless stumblings of people trying to adapt to a more diverse world. Whether we mean them as aggression or not, if our words and actions are perceived as offensive, we are placing barriers and roadblocks in the way of therapeutic alliances we are trying to build, or provoking needless tension on our workplace teams.  I find it humbling to consider the ways I may fail to act with sensitivity and empathy toward others. I hope a read through this article, and Dr.Ansar's own story below, may provoke us toward more thoughtful behavior.

From Dr. Ansar: It is a very nice article. It reminded me of my first job as attending when one of the rheumatology attending ,who I asked to see one of my patient for consultation on inpatient unit,  assumed that I was a resident even after I introduced myself and then went on to quiz me. Being  psychiatrist I was not sure if I should take an offence in that or enjoy her ‘blind spot’ related to her racial bias or age bias or both.  I decided to enjoy and continued to let her quiz me, smiling inside me when the charge nurse could not take it any longer and stepped forward and stated to her, “Dr____ , I don’t if you met with Dr Ansar. She is our staff psychiatrist and attending who requested consult from your service. It is great that you both can talk to each other directly about patient’s care plans.”  I cannot forget the look on her face. I also learned in that job that somehow when I talk to consultants coming to see my patient on inpatient psych unit over the phone it was a great conversation but in person it was like the above encounter so I preferred to call instead of my usual attempt to meet with them if I can.

Second thing I want to mention is when I was in above situation I was wondering if this is my highly sensitized feeling or this is really happening until the charge nurse stepped forward and she and I were discussing it later one that she clearly noticed what was going on…. In short it was not ‘just in my head.”