GENDER AND CONVERSATIONAL INTERRUPTIONS IN CLINICAL SCENARIO-BASED SIMULATION TRAINING FOR MEDICAL STUDENTS

Abstract

Gender differences in conversational interruptions have been examined in a number of different professional areas, such as corporate and judicial settings. Previous studies on conversational interruptions show that a majority involve men interrupting women, and that these interruptions amplify the gender bias and discrimination faced by those in the workplace on a daily basis. However, there is a paucity of information reported on this subject within the field of medicine and, specifically, within undergraduate medical education. Hardly any research has explored gender and conversational interruptions amongst medical students, and between medical students and their instructors. To address this gap, University of Arizona medical students were recorded during their Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) trainings in the College of Medicine Arizona Simulation Technology and Education Center (ASTEC) for analysis of interruptions. Multiple raters watched and scored the video recordings of high-fidelity, mannequin-based simulation scenarios. A coding system for interruptions was developed to evaluate the impact of not only gender, but other potentially influential factors such as the type of interruption and status of the interrupter and interruptee. After analysis of the data collected, it was found that men interrupted women more often than women interrupted men (p<0.05), and more specifically, male students interrupted female students twice as often as the reverse (p<0.02). In regard to interruption type, there were twice as many male-student-on-female-student power interruptions than there were female-student-on-male-student power interruptions (p<0.05). These findings have interesting implications for ways to minimize conversational interruptions in medical simulation training.