Can a Woman of Color Trust Medical Education?

Abstract

In this Invited Commentary, the author—a second-generation immigrant, a first-generation college graduate, and a woman of color—reflects on the experiences during medical school that shaped her trust in the medical education system. She describes her reasons for entering medicine—to become the kind of doctor she wished she had had growing up. Then she considers how the words physicians use with patients and to talk about patients, which can reinforce problematic narratives and indicate complicity with structural injustices, negatively affect the care they provide. Trainees learn what is acceptable behavior from this hidden curriculum, perpetuating these harmful practices. The author challenges readers to consider how leaders in medical education can work to change this culture to create an education system that trains a physician workforce that keeps patients’ voices and experiences at the center of their care and serves the needs of all patients, regardless of their identities.

More Than Half of Family Medicine Clerkships Do Not Address Systemic Racism: A CERA Study

“…24 Meanwhile, stereotypes and biases may be promoted, and racist beliefs entrenched, when racial health inequities are taught without intentional instruction about their root causes. [25][26][27] Review of the literature suggests that medical curricula often harbor misrepresentations of race, such as lessons that teach race as a genetic proxy rather than as a social construct. 28,29 Race-based guidelines are still also widely taught without adequate exploration of the strength of evidence informing the guidelines.…”