Discrimination Against Healthcare Workers by Patients and Colleagues, Affective Injustice and the Impact on Well‐Being and Practice

Discrimination in healthcare is a pervasive issue that affects patients, healthcare providers, and quality of care. This article mobilizes the concept of affective injustice-a wrong done to someone as an affective being-to better understand the harms experienced by healthcare providers facing discrimination from both patients and colleagues. When patients discriminate, the duty to care often overrides the healthcare provider's ability to express justified emotions, particularly anger. In contrast, inter-colleague discrimination frequently takes the form of microaggressions, which are difficult to challenge. Because of these difficulties, healthcare providers often feel pressured to engage in emotional regulation strategies to manage their own affects. While emotional regulation strategies may be helpful in the short-term, we show that they do not address the root causes of discrimination and may exacerbate healthcare providers' distress, and impact care quality and staff retention. To better deal with these problems, the article will propose affective resources, opportunities, and freedoms that can be put into place to support healthcare providers and to make the workplace a more just space for all.