Cmaj Podcasts

Send us a textOn this episode of the CMAJ Podcast, Dr. Kirsten Patrick speaks with Dr. Shane Neilson, the author of a CMAJ Encounters article entitled, “Professional stigmatizations.” Dr. Neilson is a physician, writer, and academic, who shares his experiences navigating medical school and practice as a neurodiverse physician with bipolar disorder and autism. Dr. Neilson reflects on the challenges he faced during medical school, including a moment when a preceptor told him, "There’s something wrong with you," without offering any support or guidance. He shares how this, along with the pressure to conform to normative expectations in medicine, made his training difficult, especially without any accommodations for neurodiverse students.Dr. Patrick relates to these struggles, recounting her own experiences of feeling out of place in medical school. Together, they discuss how the culture of medical education at the time did not accommodate students who did not fit the traditional mold.Dr. Neilson notes