"The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) does have a great deal of power over the entire medical education continuum," Laura Morgan MSN, RN of Do No Harm told AFN. "They administer the medical college admission tests, which is the best predictor of how well that student will do in medical school, and also the application systems for entering medical school and residency as well, so there's a great deal of influence that the AAMC has over medical education, but unfortunately they have been embedding the concepts related to Diversity Equity Inclusion (DEI), anti-racism and related concepts for quite some time."
How? Curriculum? Online webinars? Speakers?
According to Morgan, it is all of the above.
"Also, the liaison committee on medical education is sponsored by the AAMC, so the AAMC has a great deal of influence over the accreditation standards related to admission of medical universities, their curricula and the programs within medical education at these universities."
AFN is seeking comment from AAMC.
Patients have expectations
Meanwhile, Morgan says everyone deserves to be able to enter a hospital or walk into a doctor's office knowing that they have "a competent caring physician who sees them as an individual deserving of excellent care" instead of a member of an identity group.
"Unfortunately, the AAMC does promote the concept of racial concordance which says that people will have a better outcome if they are taken care of by a healthcare provider who shares their race or ethnicity, and those concepts just don't hold up in the medical evidence."
A registered nurse, Morgan was fired by a previous employer for refusing to go along with implicit bias training. That is a concept that says, 'I'm prejudiced against people when we don't share the same skin color.' Unwilling to "capitulate to that," Morgan says her nursing career was ended.
"So, people do need to know that there are experienced health care providers who are being forced out of the industry through things related to DEI and that in medical school these concepts are replacing time that could be better spent learning about things that have to do with being a good doctor," says Morgan.
In more places than the obvious
As for which medical schools and systems are known for DEI policies, Morgan points to the University of California system while adding that these things also go on in medical schools located in states typically seen as conservative.
"So, it truly is a very widespread problem," says Morgan. "This is not good for medicine and ultimately the patients."
