As BIPOC med students and residents ‘professionalism’ is weaponized against us.

For patients it’s labels like “difficult”.

Because in my experience one demographic gets to be ‘an advocate” while another is “challenging”.

Most of the time the ‘difficult’ patients are simply asking for a level effort the constraints of our job make it difficult to provide.

Ultimately, that’s not their fault and they shouldn’t be penalized with descriptors that perpetuate biases.

I’ve sat at morning report and on L&D and heard a charge nurse mock a Black patient’s request to have a ‘diverse’ care team.

Imagine advocating for yourself, in a place with a high Black maternal mortality rate.... only to be described as difficult.

My unsolicited advice for rising MS3s on #MedStudentTwitter would be to ignore what you hear about patients, form your own assessments, and reflect on the negative adjectives used to describe them