The impact of accent on assessment of residents by physicians, nurses, and patients is a research project led by Debby Oladimeji, a medical student at the University of Alberta.

“This research project is dedicated to exploring whether accents have an impact on the reception and assessment of resident (trainee) physicians by patients, nurses, and physicians. Accents typically signal to a persons’ origin, race, and socioeconomic status, all which are social factors that impact peoples’ daily living. In an effort to combat the implicit or explicit bias driven by these factors, we want to investigate if these biases exist within the healthcare training system, with the end goal of creating a solution that will create a safer, bias-free environment for these physicians in training. We are dedicated to ensuring that there is research undertaken to collect information on the experiences of minority and underrepresented trainee physicians to make sure we are doing our part in starting and having these conversations that will ignite change in these deep-rooted systemic issues that exist in all our systems, including healthcare.”