Anti-Black Medical Gaslighting in Healthcare: Experiences of Black Women in Canada.
Priscilla N Boakye, Nadia Prendergast, Annette Bailey and 4 others
PMID 38644764WHAT IT FOUND
Black pregnant and postpartum women in Canada said nurses and providers dismissed concerns, doubted pain, and made them prove illness.
They said being believed, not standard medical wording, was needed to turn off gaslighting.
Key findings
01Participants described their concerns being downplayed or deemed irrelevant, leaving them struggling to prove legitimacy.
02Pain stereotypes led participants to say providers disbelieved their pain, delayed urgent care, and made some endure suffering in silence.
03Participants said turning off gaslighting requires providers to listen, believe their body knowledge, and address bias.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
Small purposive sample of 24 women in one Canadian region, so it cannot represent all Black women or healthcare encounters. Participants were patients, not nurses or providers, so clinician perspectives and reasons for care decisions were not captured. No outcomes were measured, and the authors state the data did not support a link between gaslighting and poorer maternal health outcomes. Interviews relied on self-report and memory, and the interview questions about provider responses may have shaped accounts.
Declared interests
The authors declared no conflicts of interest. Funding came from the Office of the Dean, Faculty of Community Services, Toronto Metropolitan University.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read these themes as proof that anti-Black medical gaslighting caused adverse maternal outcomes. The study did not measure outcomes and says its data did not support that link.