The Project
Exploring how LBTQIA+ identifying medical students who hold other minority identities at medical school experience role models to mediate their sense of belonging.
Sexual and/or gender minority (SGM) identifying individuals experience worse health outcomes whencompared to non-SGM identifying counterparts. Representation of SGM-identifying individuals within medical schools is one way to reduce implicit and explicit biases, and normalise the presence of SGM individuals both within medical education and healthcare spaces, in order to narrow differential health outcomes. Admissions processes have traditionally been targeted as the main channel through which to bolster representation. However, discrimination *within* medical education contexts can limit the comfort of these students to be ‘out’ and hence not fully realise this goal. Wider literature, together with previous work that we have conducted, indicates that role modelling can play a powerful role in belonging, through which personal (SGM) and professional identities are formed, married, and projected within medical educational spaces. However, intersectional identities were not explored in prior work. This project aims to build upon previous knowledge, applying an intersectional identities perspective. We aim to investigate whether our past findings are upheld, set against a background of a nexus of diverse identities intertwined with SGM identity. This is the first project of its kind specifically examining role modelling in this capacity, to our knowledge.
