Dispositions of newly qualified doctors encountering a language-related dilemma in South Africa

Abstract

The overarching goal of medical internship is to provide newly qualified doctors (NQDs) with work-based learning opportunities to gain experience of clinical practice under supervision, while gradually assuming greater independent responsibility. In South Africa, this often stressful period of potentially transformative learning is additionally complicated by issues of language. This article, based on a narrative study that explored NQDs’ experiences, focuses on two of the NQDs’ responses to multilingual learning environments encountered in clinical practice. We report on the journeys of these doctors as they faced a similar language-related dilemma on transitioning to internship, to which each responded very differently due to their individual habitus. In the context of eleven official languages in South Africa, learning opportunities for medical interns are likely to be influenced by linguistic dispositions and capability to communicate in the prevalent language of medical practice in a specific region. The study found that the trajectories of the two NQDs had also been profoundly influenced by the collective sociocultural dispositions in clinical practice environments. This article argues that, in addition to gaining medical knowledge, in order to construct positive identities as doctors, graduates should be better prepared for the contextual, cultural and linguistic aspects of medical practice.