A new study in a leading academic journal recommends that medical schools implement mandatory anti-racism training for all non-Black faculty members as part of a “comprehensive intervention for dismantling anti-Black racism” in the U.S. health care system.
The study of 16 self-identified “expert(s) in anti-Black racism,” which nine researchers published on Friday in the Journal of the American Medical Association, consisted of interviews with medical school faculty who are either Black or work in diversity, equity and inclusion offices.
According to the study, systemic racism explains the fact that “Black faculty and trainees remain severely underrepresented in academic medicine (AM) despite decades of diversity initiatives.”
“Participants suggested that an intervention should have a comprehensive learning objective; be mandatory for all faculty, with the exception of Black faculty; draw from outside expertise; and receive allocation of resources and funding equal to other important training modules,” the study concludes.
Other challenges that the report said Black faculty and medical school students face include recruitment, retention and promotion of Black faculty, as well as “experiences of microaggressions and overt racism.”
The 16 faculty members who participated in the study represented 13 medical schools in 11 states. According to the researchers, 56% identified as Black or African American and 63% as women.
Researchers interviewed them between October 2020 and March 2021.
Health, The New York Today
