Lesson plan
Structural competency
Jonathan Metzl, an American psychiatrist, professor, and writer, and Helena Hansen, an American psychiatrist, professor, and anthropologist wrote the article, “Structural competency: Theorizing a new medical engagement with stigma and inequality” in which this definition of structural competency was developed. Metzl and Hansen describe medical structural competency as a “trained ability to discern how a host of issues” including social determinants define “symptoms, attitude, or attitudes” that patients may possess impact treatment. Both, alongside other structural competence advocates believe that structural competency is integral to the training of physicians in their service to others as oftentimes, social determinants of health issues are overlooked as the sources of problems. Instead blame is typically put on the individual for their contribution to their own poor health.
Article summary
Jonathan Metzl, an American psychiatrist, professor, and writer, and Helena Hansen, an American psychiatrist, professor, and anthropologist wrote the article, “Structural competency: Theorizing a new medical engagement with stigma and inequality” in which this definition of structural competency was developed. Metzl and Hansen describe medical structural competency as a “trained ability to discern how a host of issues” including social determinants define “symptoms, attitude, or attitudes” that patients may possess impact treatment. Both, alongside other structural competence advocates believe that structural competency is integral to the training of physicians in their service to others as oftentimes, social determinants of health issues are overlooked as the sources of problems. Instead blame is typically put on the individual for their contribution to their own poor health.
Key claims
No claims recorded.
Discussion questions
- Summarise the article in your own words. Which single claim would you verify first, and why?
- Which claim in this article is most likely to be revised as the sources update? How would you check its current status?
- If two sources disagreed about one of these facts, what would you need in order to trust one over the other?
Bibliography
No sources recorded.
Key claims and bibliography are generated from the same tracked claims and sources as the article page.