Abrasion: a phenomenological study of inequity in workplace-based assessment in pediatrics

Hannah L. Kakara Anderson, Layla Abdulla, Pricilla Cabral, Marjan Govaerts, Dorene F. Balmer and Jamiu O. Busari

Social Science & Medicine, 2025, vol. 375, issue C

Abstract: Despite the centrality of workplace-based assessments in medical education and practice, there is troubling evidence that workplace-based assessments are inequitable. This study investigated the experience of inequity in workplace-based assessment via a phenomenological study with learners (resident physicians) and assessors (physician supervisors) in one specialty in the United States, general pediatrics, from August 2023-June 2024. The authors used critical phenomenology to prompt and iteratively analyze participants' experiences with inequity in workplace-based assessment and their lifeworlds. To understand participants' lifeworlds, the authors applied Collins' domains of power framework to examine participants’ varied and unique locations within intersecting power relations. Participants described the phenomenon of inequity in workplace-based assessment as a type of abrasion, that is, an injury caused by friction that occurred when a workplace-based assessment excoriated their sense of self. Abrasion had three dimensions: physical, affective, and temporal. These findings suggest that inequity in workplace-based assessment cannot be tracked solely by measuring disparities in numbers, grades, differences in narrative language used in comments, and other common measures of inequity, rather, it can be characterized as an experienced, felt, phenomenon that has essential dimensions. These findings have major implications for how inequity is conceptualized and intervened upon in medical education.

Date: 2025
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953625004228
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:socmed:v:375:y:2025:i:c:s0277953625004228

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/supportfaq.cws_home/regional
http://www.elsevier. ... _01_ooc_1&version=01

DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2025.118092

Access Statistics for this article

Social Science & Medicine is currently edited by Ichiro (I.) Kawachi and S.V. (S.V.) Subramanian

More articles in Social Science & Medicine from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().