Cultural humility saves lives in medical education (and everywhere) says medical student groups
Sometimes you have to just stop and give some applause. In a recent opinion piece, published by the American Association of Medical Colleges, the leadership of a diverse array of medical student groups highlighted the real danger that the U.S. Supreme Court could erase years of progress in improving the diversity of the medical student population and eliminate the progress that is occurring in increasing the cultural humility of the physician workforce.
The students highlighted the same deep concerns regarding two cases pending before the courts that MedReimagined had also highlighted recently. Our approach was to highlight the racist origins of the American medical system and view equity initiatives as what they are, attempts to reimagine a system which strips people of their inalienable rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. These medical students have shown great leadership in pointing out an equally compelling point. The authors of the op-ed represent a broad range of student groups, including groups focused on serving Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, as well as groups focused on LGBTQ+ health, disability advocacy, and global health. They argue that these diverse groups have a critical role to play in influencing the cultural humility and curriculum of medical schools and the medical population at large.
They see part of their role as influencing their peers and the institutions they are a part of to demonstrate more cultural humility and thereby more equitable practices. They go on to define cultural humility as, the “lifelong commitment to self-evaluation and critique, to redressing the power imbalances in the physician-patient dynamic, and to developing mutually beneficial and non-paternalistic partnerships with communities on behalf of individuals and defined populations.”
Diversity in medical education is a prerequisite step for cultural humility. This viewpoint is consistent with Medreimagined's commitment to making medical education more accessible to students of all backgrounds and our north star of seeing Black and brown aspiring physicians, regardless of background, enroll and complete medical school at the same rate as 2nd and 3rd generation MDs.
If a key challenge in improving health outcomes for all communities and addressing longstanding health disparities that have disproportionately affected underrepresented groups is making sure that ALL physicians are adequately prepared to treat patients from any background - then the cultural humility of the physician workforce is a key goal. The fact that building cultural humility disproportionately becomes the responsibility of underrepresented students in medical education underscores that the importance of strong numbers of exceptionally prepared scholars ready to take on these challenges, in addition to the rigors of medical school, cannot be overstated.
We get asked sometimes about our unapologetic focus on Black and brown aspiring doctors. We’re clear that we do not do so to exclude anyone. We also aren’t motivated just by historic injustice - though it is natural to hear the cries of your people and respond. We do, do it because we’re good it, but that’s only part of the reason. It’s natural to center yourself in your genius and say, “Who knows better than us what it takes for a Black child to have the opportunity to go as far in medicine as their abilities will take them”. But deep down, the final final reason is that we focus on Black and brown and diverse students because they will have the greatest impact on shaping the future of medical education, and the practice of medicine as a whole. The history of America is that uplifting the Black community uplifts all of America, possibly even the world. We applaud these student leaders and their groups for recognizing the same and are proud to be in the struggle beside them.
Unfortunately, Judge Clarence Thomas, who sits in the seat earned by Thurgood Marshall, has a diversity problem. “I’ve heard the word ‘diversity’ quite a few times, and I don’t have a clue what it means,” he said, while hearing this case. One would think that a Black man in a position of power among white peers should be expressing to his fellow justices how people who look like him, from communities like the one he comes from, continue to suffer and die for lack of cultural humility in medical practices and a host of other areas. Instead he’s a cautionary tale of willful ignorance to once responsibility to build cultural humility in place he’s been for three decades. His predecessor quite literally laid the blueprint for building cultural humility and how it starts with the opportunity to learn and go to school together. Hopefully, if Justice Thomas reads a few pieces like these in preparation for a ruling that will determine the lives of millions, maybe he’ll find that clue he himself admits he’s missing.
