Chatting with Avita Rath on feeling like an imposter and the need to talk about emotional labour

Avita Rath, speaks of feeling like an imposter as a dentist in Health Professions Education and the invisible work of emotional labour. In episode twelve we chat with Dr Avita Rath, a periodontic dentist by training from India, currently working in Malaysia. Avita reflects on her inherent love for education, and her informal teaching experiences as an undergraduate and postgraduate student, before undertaking a formal qualification in Medical Education. She continues to share her experiences of alienation in the field, feeling like an imposter as a dentist in the hierarchical field of Health Professions Education – from her student days to her professional experiences. This is followed by discussing her latest publication on ‘emotional labour’. Avita shares the history of the term and background research, before diving deeper into this gendered and cultural invisible labour. She ends by recommending that we need to talk about our emotions and normalise the idea of emotional labour, as a way to shift current culture and practice – in opposition to checklist approaches. Avita is open and honest in sharing her personal experiences throughout, which is likely to resonate with many listeners (as it did with me!). If interested in delving into Avita’s work, her Google scholar profile can be found here: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=N15xbxUAAAAJ&hl=en, her Medical Education “When I say... emotional labour” publication here: https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15699 and if you would like to contact Dr Rath, you can email her at: [email protected] or [email protected]. You can follow her on X/Twitter: @drravrgreen.

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