Abstract

SOLER-GONZALEZ, Jorge; RODRIGUEZ-ROSICH, Antoni; MARSAL-MORA, Josep Ramon  and  GRUPO AP-UDL. Racial stereotyping and cultural competence: improving medical education. FEM (Ed. impresa) [online]. 2014, vol.17, n.2, pp.69-74. ISSN 2014-9840.  https://dx.doi.org/10.4321/S2014-98322014000200003.

Introduction.Health inequalities are multiple and complex and they are avoidable. Educating Medical student training is an ideal opportunity for reflecting on practices and for engendering skills and attitudes of respect, equity and equanimity among future health professionals. Coinciding with a modification of the teaching program at our faculty, we designed the present study to ascertain whether second-year medical students might propose different approaches to the management of the same hypothetical clinical case depending on the patient's ethnicity. Subjects and methods. 1st stage: comparison of the responses of two groups of students to a questionnaire regarding a hypothetical clinical case. The only discriminatory variable between the groups was the photograph of the patient attached: a black youth in one case, and a white youth in the other. 2nd stage: home work and in a feedback session. 3rd stage: small-group workshop focused on the need for retraining and activities to heighten awareness of the problem. Results. When the patient was black, fewer tests were requested, the patient was less likely to be sent to hospital, and there was a perception that he tended to exaggerate the symptoms to obtain personal benefit. Conclusions. We found prejudice in patient management at the beginning of the medicine degree. We advocate the incorporation of concepts of health inequalities and cultural competence in medical studies, so as to minimize the effect of these preconceived ideas from the very beginning of the training of future health professionals.

Keywords : Faculty of Medicine; Family and community medicine; Problem-based learning; Undergraduate education.

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