How losing a sense of belonging damages healthcare

“Where are you from” is a question I’m often asked. There was a time when I was bothered by being asked this. As an immigrant seeking a sense of belonging, probing my origin story tended to put me on the defensive—understandably so, because it generally wasn’t asked out of curiosity, more out of suspicion, distrust, and dislike. Some patients didn’t want a doctor who wasn’t white. A few made it obvious, others were more subtle. A rare patient would unexpectedly break into Urdu or Punjabi, always a lovely moment. Only once was a patient overtly racist.Today, it’s a question I mostly welcome, since it is usually posed out of curiosity or empathy. As the three clinicians in our careers clinic rightly conclude, it’s all about context (doi:10.1136/bmj.q435).1 In fact, WAYF is a question I often ask. I ask it because I love to know where people or their families are…
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