I was recently surfing around the Internet when I came across a blog post on the Association of Women Surgeon’s website. The post was titled “Are You Doing My Surgery?”: Addressing Microaggressions in Surgery. It’s a very interesting read that discusses microaggressions between doctor and patient. The main focus of the article revolves around the question, “Are you the one doing my surgery?”
This may seem like an innocent enough question, but the surgeon in the story was an African American female. This subtle question seems to imply that the patient may be hoping that a more stereotypical-looking surgeon was performing the operation – an older, white male. I’ll never be able to fully relate to the challenges that minority female surgeons face in the workplace, but I’ve also been asked if I was performing a surgery when the question carried subtle tones of doubt.
When I was first beginning my practice, I would sometimes get the question, “You look so young, are you doing my surgery?” What some may view as a compliment to my age also carries some subtlety of doubt. “You’re so young, are you sure that another surgeon with more experience isn’t a better option to perform my surgery?” I learned to deal with the question, and over time as I grew older, it faded from the pre-surgical consultation.
Micro-Affirmations
I’ve also experienced the opposite side of the spectrum that the author talks about in her post on microagressions. I often diagnose complex foot and ankle issues, so when I tell patients exactly what’s going wrong and how they’ll need surgery, it’s often followed with the question, “Will you be doing the surgery?” I can see their anxiety fade away as I explain that yes, I’ll be the one performing the operation and helping them with every step of their care.
We need to realize how important perspective is when fielding questions from patients. I have no doubt that question received in the blog post was a veiled microaggression, and I commend her for the way she handled the situation. Sometimes patients are simply looking for confirmation that you are the one doing the surgery because of the decorum and pre-operative care you’ve provided, and what could be considered a microagression is actually a micro-affirmation.
Again, I cannot fully relate to the surgeon in the blog post, but as a practicing Jewish surgeon, it hasn’t always been smooth sailing. Many different minorities have been the subject of this kind of discrimination over the years, and it wasn’t all that long ago that no one would let a Jewish doctor practice in their hospital. However, we can overcome this stigma and extinguish this behavior by continuing to recruit strong-minded and successful minority surgeons. I commend the author for bringing light to an issue that many in the profession may not experience or even realize is a problem faced by some of their colleagues.