“Is that a Geordie accent I hear? ” A UKCCC Guest Blog by Dr James Fisher

Students described how their accent affected experiences before they had even entered medical school, including during applications and selection interviews. Accent continued to shape experiences during both the pre-clinical and clinical phases of training, influencing how students perceived themselves and how they believed others perceived them. Many reflected on implicit expectations of what a doctor “ought” to sound like.

Importantly, we also found that accent influences clinical communication itself.

For some students, having a shared regional accent with a patient helped establish rapport, foster trust, and encouraged information sharing during consultations. For others, regional accents became a source of prejudice. Students described patients making assumptions about their intelligence, competence, or professionalism based solely on how they spoke.

Our work also highlighted a more practical challenge: communication difficulties arising from accent and dialect. Some students found it difficult to understand patients with unfamiliar local speech patterns, while others experienced patients struggling to understand them. These challenges were rarely discussed openly, despite having clear implications for patient care and the educational experience.

In Newcastle, we’re proud of our rich regional linguistic heritage and are working to ensure that accent awareness becomes a recognised component of healthcare education.

As part of this work, we are hosting a public engagement event to hear directly from patients and healthcare professionals about how accent has influenced their healthcare interactions.

We’re working to develop a simple communication tool that can be used by both patients and clinicians when accent or dialect creates barriers to understanding. The goal here is to get patients and healthcare staff to work together to resolve misunderstandings before they affect care.

However, we believe this conversation extends far beyond Newcastle.

The UK is home to extraordinary linguistic diversity, with a rich tapestry of regional accents and dialects. Healthcare professionals also increasingly work within internationally diverse teams, bringing an even wider range of speech patterns and communication styles. Accent diversity is therefore not an exception – it is an everyday reality of modern healthcare.

If we are to deliver equitable, person-centred care, we must recognise accent as an important component of clinical communication. This means acknowledging the impact of accent bias, equipping healthcare professionals with strategies to navigate communication challenges sensitively, and creating learning environments where students and clinicians do not feel pressure to modify or hide their identity in order to be perceived as competent.

We therefore argue that accent awareness should become a coordinated and explicit part of clinical communication skills education.

To make sure every voice is heard, and valued, it’s time to move accent from an overlooked characteristic to an acknowledged component of effective, equitable clinical communication.

Reference

Robinson M, Corrigan Karen P, Fisher J. ‘It’s the way I talk, y’knaa?’: Accent, Dialect, Assumptions and Bias in Medical Education. The Clinical Teacher. 2025;22(3):e70084.