The enemy within: The new war in medical education

Introduction: War and military metaphors have long been used in clinical medicine to describe medicine's collective fight against disease. However, recently resistor trainees have used similar language to describe their acts of professional resistance against social harm and injustice. To understand the contours of this war, this study analyzes the metaphoric language these trainees use to describe their acts of resistance. Methods: We recruited 18 resisting trainees using our personal and professional networks and snowball sampling. Participants were interviewed from July 2022–February 2023. Using methodological bricolage, we analyzed the data using Wickens' analytical approach, which draws on constant comparative analysis and discursive textual analysis. Data were analyzed in three phases that included a consult with a military historian, isolation of metaphoric language, and a textual analysis using context clues from participants’ descriptions of their acts of professional resistance. Results: Resisting trainees used metaphorical language to signal an insurgency to topple power. These trainees referenced two conflicts: the mistreatment of patients and the mistreatment of trainees. Enemies were conceptualized as anyone who actively protects institutions and the traditions of medicine, such as leaders of medical schools and hospitals, and physicians trained in a more traditional system. Trainees conceptualized the primary battlefield as medicine's process of socialization that integrates trainees into a profession, and accepts mistreatment as the norm. Weapons included LCME site visits and sympathetic faculty members. Conclusion: Whereas metaphorical language around war and the military was previously the purview of physicians, resistor trainees have adopted war metaphors for their own purposes. They do not use these metaphors accidently; they are meant to signal their intentions to restructure medical education. Leaders must begin working with trainees in sincere partnership to create widespread change.