Abstract:
Background: The creation of safe work environments for Indigenous medical practitioners
has been identified as key to the elimination of ethnic inequities in the health workforce
internationally. There is research to suggest that Māori medical students and doctors
experience mistreatment in their education and workplaces, contributing to low numbers of
Indigenous medical practitioners in New Zealand. The health sector has identified an urgent
need for action.
Aims: This research aims to identify the types of experiences of bullying, discrimination and
harassment experienced by Māori medical students, and the key contributors towards general
mistreatment of Māori medical students throughout medical training.
Methods: This Kaupapa Māori research study took place within the context of a broader
project, Te Whakahaumaru Taiao. Individual interviews were used to understand Māori
medical student experiences of bullying, discrimination and harassment during their training.
Māori medical students currently studying at the University of Auckland were invited to
participate in the study. A total of six participants were involved in the study. Thematic
analysis was used to analyse the data.
Results: Four themes were identified from the data: “I think a lot of people experience it
every day,” Belonging, Power and Environments are important. The findings indicate that
mistreatment of Māori medical students is pervasive, it occurs in all settings and affects many
aspects of their lives. Medicine is very heirarchical in nature, and the systems of power in
place affect the ways in which students experience mistreatment, and their abilities to
respond to mistreatment. All students interviewed in this study identified stereotyping and
assumptions of “special privilege” based on membership to the Māori and Pacific Admission
Scheme (MAPAS) as a significant experience of mistreatment they faced.
Conclusions: The discrimination and mistreatment of Māori medical students has been
identified as an issue for many years, yet no definitive appears to have occurred within
medical schools to make a change in the patterns of abuse seen on a regular basis. Urgent
action needs to be taken in order to prevent these experiences from continuing, and to create
safe spaces for Māori to learn and work in, in medicine. We must be active in creating a nontoxic
environment.