Editorial: Diversity in Medical Education

Abstract

While medical schools need to address the health care needs of diverse populations and to accommodate to the diverse needs of their students and staff, addressing and studying diversity in medical education remains challenging. In teaching cultural competence, several approaches are identified, including a cultural expertise approach, a cultural sensibility approach and a cross-cultural approach with the more recently emerging call for reflexivity. We propose the analysis of diversity related issues at three distinct levels: fixing the numbers, fixing the institutions and fixing the knowledge.

Cultural influences and the Objective Structured Clinical Examination

“…As medical schools work to make themselves more inclusive, culturally diverse standardized patients can tactically assist strategies to "fix the numbers, the institution, and knowledge". 46 The fullest benefit of standardized patients will not be realized until we account for and accommodate the impact of culture more fully.…”

Unraveling the medical residency selection game

“…The increasing sociocultural diversity in Western society is underrepresented in the medical workforce (Leyerzapf and Abma 2012;Verdonk and Janczukowicz 2018), partly because we seem to lose medical graduates with a sociocultural diverse background, i.e. underrepresented minorities (URM) in the transition to residency (Leyerzapf and Abma 2012).…”

“…This is unfortunate in light of the increasing demand for culturally sensitive care (Saha et al 2008;Goldsmith 2000;U.S. Department of Health Human Services 2006;Verdonk and Janczukowicz 2018;Cohen et al 2002).…”

“…Despite the increasing number of URM medical students in many Western countries, they continue to be underrepresented in residency training and in the medical specialist workforce (Leyerzapf et al 2015;Verdonk and Janczukowicz 2018). In the Dutch context, there has been a slight increase in URM candidates among medical school attendants.…”

Perception of Senior Faculty Regarding Frame Factors in Curriculum Change at Undergraduate Level in Medical and Dental Schools

“…However, there are varieties of factors including the environment and internal and external factors, which influence both the students' learning and curriculum development by the faculty. The following are called "frame factors" and are broadly categorized into; Temporal, Physical, Organizational, Personal, Cultural and Social frames 11,12 . These frame factors have both positive impact if made available and promote the curriculum changes, while in case of failure; these may act as impediment for curricular changes, if already adopted.…”