Is it Really a “Leaky Pipeline” if We are Actively Pushing People Out?
This Blog post represents a partnership between the Women in Medicine Summit and Healio Women in Oncology. An excerpt appears blow, and please find the full length piece at Healio’s Women in Oncology Blog
I am a Black physician in training, and at times, I feel like I may lose my spot.
In 2015, Black residents accounted for approximately 5% of all residents, yet they accounted for almost 20% of those who were dismissed, according to reporting by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education.
Underrepresented minority (URM) individuals attempting to pursue a career in medicine are exiting the “leaky pipeline” at many time-points on the medicine journey (from college premed track, medical school, residency, fellowship and beyond) at disproportionately higher rates compared with their counterparts.
‘Unexpected departures’
Within my own experience, I can reflect on times when it felt like fellow URM trainees were unfairly targeted and had unexpected departures under obscure circumstances. While working as a medical scribe, I can recall overhearing hospital staff discussing how the only Black orthopedic resident at the time was let go — yet another URM resident they had seen to have been mysteriously dismissed from their program.
Even just a few weeks ago, the former Chief Diversity Officer at University Hospital resigned, later recounting her experience of feeling targeted, demeaned and disrespected as a Black female physician in a leadership position.
The issue with the “leaky pipeline” analogy is that it describes the phenomenon as a passive occurrence — as if it were bound to happen without external influences. Prior research and my own lived experience would indicate that this is simply not the case; often obstacles forcing URM individuals out of the workforce are factors outside of their control.
About the author: Evanie Anglade is a second-year medical study at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School. She wrote this blog post under the guidance of her mentor, Fumiko Chino, MD, radiation oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.
