How to Eliminate a Deficit-Centered Mindset About Medical Students of Color (original) (raw)

2021, AMA Journal of Ethics

Approaches to responding to racial and ethnic health inequity in the United States have had limited impact over the past 40 years. Efforts to increase the number of medical students of color are undermined by hyperfocus and overreliance on and misinterpretation and misuse of standardized examination scores. Structural racism and persistence of deficit-focused interventions undermine appreciation of the value that students and physicians with minoritized identities bring to medicine and to US health care's systemic capacity to motivate equity. Diversity Motivates Equity Although the US health care system is characterized by high technology and high resource investment, the United States has the lowest life expectancy and highest infant mortality of 11 of the highest-income nations. 1 Health inequity contributes to this lag, and increasing the number of physicians in training from groups underrepresented in medicine (URiM), such as African Americans/Blacks, Latinos, and Native Americans, is key to promoting health equity. 2,3,4 Our nation cannot possibly achieve its potential without responding to health needs in underserved communities, addressing social and political determinants of health (eg, structural racism), and increasing physician workforce diversity.

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