Title of Featured Article: Professionalism and Disabled Clinicians: The Client’s Perspective.

Collection III: Disability in health sciences: the need for and benefits of inclusion

Authors: Tal Jarus, Roberta Bezati, Sacha Trivett, Michael Lee, Laura Yvonne Bulk, Alfiya Battalova, Yael Mayer, Susan Murphy, Patricia Gerber, and Donna Drynan.

Description: Episode 14 is the second of two sister-episodes exploring perceptions of disabled clinicians from a range of specialties. The article featured, "Professionalism and Disabled Clinicians: The Client’s Perspective" (2020) analyzes how disabled clients and caregivers of people with disabilities responded to the prospect of being treated by a disabled clinician. Drawing on interviews and focus-group discussions, the authors find that clients held positive perceptions of and were affirmative about receiving care from disabled clinicians. Interviewees felt that these providers might be more “client-centered,” could act as “role models,” 

Client interviewees also suggested that power dynamics between clients and clinicians (usually weighted towards the healthcare provider) might be evenly balanced in the case of disabled clinicians, not because disability lowered the social status of the provider but because the clinicians' additional experiential knowledge of navigating the world with disability would imbue the clinical encounter with enhanced rapport and understanding of barriers (on the part of the physicians). Interviewees felt that disclosure of disability by a provider fell into the realm of appropriate and professional interactions with clients–and could even enhance provider-patient relationships. A consensus also emerged that disabled clinicians would pick fields and work conditions that suited their strengths; clients felt safe being treated by clinicians with disabilities.

Producer: Zoey Martin-Lockhart and Lisa Meeks

Sound: Jacob Feeman

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/09687599.2019.1669436

Journal link: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09687599.2019.1669436?journalCode=cdso20

Transcript

Release: August 2023

Keywords:

Disclosure

Professionalism

Competency

Clinicians

Clients

Ableism

Disability Education

Disability Attitudes

Disability Competency

Healthcare Training

Medical training

Care work

Chronic Illness

Disability terminology

Disability studies

Social model

Medical model

Health Sciences

Medical Education