The Resurgence of Medical Education in Sociology: A Return to Our Roots and an Agenda for the Future

Abstract

From 1940 to 1980, studies of medical education were foundational to sociology, but attention shifted away from medical training in the late 1980s. Recently, there has been a marked return to this once pivotal topic, reflecting new questions and stakes. This article traces this resurgence by reviewing recent substantive research trends and setting the agenda for future research. We summarize four current research foci that reflect and critically map onto earlier projects in this subfield while driving theoretical development elsewhere in the larger discipline: (1) professional socialization, (2) knowledge regimes, (3) stratification within the profession, and (4) sociology of the field of medical education. We then offer six potential future directions where more research is needed: (1) inequalities in medical education, (2) socialization across the life course and new institutional forms of gatekeeping, (3) provider well-being, (4) globalization, (5) medical education as knowledge-based work, and (6) effects of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Factors influencing LGBTQ+ disclosure decision-making by Canadian health professionals: A qualitative study

“…This ideology is at least as prevalent in the health professions as in any other social context. The professions are highly conservative environments, with considerable pressure toward conformity, and long histories of elitism [2,[24][25][26]. LGBTQ+ students and clinicians may face isolation, alongside erasure, invisibility and stereotyping in formal and informal curricula [2,[27][28][29][30][31][32].…”

Disaggregating inequalities in the career outcomes of international medical graduates in the United States

“…Thus, although research indicates that nativism in the medical profession tracks IMGs towards positions in US health care that USMGs eschew (Jenkins et al, 2021), the extent to which all IMGs experience such tracking remains understudied, with little known about whether divergent career outcomes are experienced among IMG subgroups representing various race–ethnicities, countries of origin, and countries of medical education. Namely, despite increasing diversification of the medical profession, evidence shows that racism profoundly affects the career outcomes and everyday experiences of both US‐trained physicians of colour and immigrant physicians (Filut et al, 2020; Olsen, 2019; Wingfield & Chavez, 2020).…”

“…As Olsen (2019) observes, ‘…medical sociology as a subfield has very little empirical data on how racial minorities may be disproportionately impacted in the course of their professional training’ (57). Still, a growing body of research shows that minoritised USMGs experience barriers in their careers that may be similar to those faced by minoritised IMGs (Jenkins et al, 2021). Notably, Davis and Allison (2013) find in their analysis of medical students' speciality choice that, net of various social factors and experiences of discrimination, medical school graduates who identified as Black men entered more prestigious medical specialities relative to their White counterparts, suggesting that experiences of racism, as opposed to personal choice, were more important in determining medical specialisation.…”

The many faces of medical treatment imperatives: Biopower and the cultural authority of medicine in late‐life treatment decisions in the United States

“…While Kaufman portrays medical science as the main arbiter of these processes [see also (Jenkins et al, 2021) on medical education and professional socialization], other researchers have examined how patients and families are differentially able to engage health‐care systems and providers to achieve various outcomes, particularly in outpatient settings. For example, Janet Shim's work on cultural health capital (Shim, 2010) examines how individuals’ agency is connected to the strategic deployment of social resources in pursuit of health goals, providing a framework for several subsequent empirical studies.…”

“…While Kaufman portrays medical science as the main arbiter of these processes [see also (Jenkins et al, 2021) on medical education and professional socialization], other researchers have examined how patients and families are differentially able to engage health-care systems encounters, but also coproduced through multiple and overlapping forces that compel individuals to pursue medical solutions to bodily problems.…”