What is it about?
Medical scientist training programs in the United States lack core curricula to educate students on inequalities that impact science and medicine. Inspired by the double pandemic of COVID-19 and structural racism, students at Washington University School of Medicine created a journal club to educate themselves on the ways that medicine and science perpetuate systemic and generational racism and social injustice. We show that the journal club increased perceived awareness of topics surrounding racism and social injustice as well as increasing a sense of connection and belonging among peers despite the program being completely virtual.
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Why is it important?
We show the impact that student driven programs can have on student education surrounding racism and injustice. In the ongoing pandemic, we show that it is possible to build cohesiveness in a medical program through creation of shared values and understanding of the role physician-scientists play in stopping the perpetuation of inequality in both academic science as well as medicine.
Perspectives
Writing this article was very motivating for myself and my colleagues in the Washington University School of Medicine Medical Scientist Training Program. We hope that this inspires other students like ourselves at other institutions to create their own social justice journal clubs to simultaneously strengthen group connections and show administration that these are the values of current students and future physician-scientists. We hope you find our article inspiring and we welcome feedback and advice and questions regarding any aspect of our efforts.
Mackenzie Lemieux
Washington University/Barnes-Jewish Hospital/Saint Louis Children's Hospital Graduate Medical Education Consortium
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: The time is now: Student‐driven implementation of social justice and anti‐racism focused curricula in medical scientist training program education, FASEB BioAdvances, March 2021, Wiley,
DOI: 10.1096/fba.2020-00112.
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