Health disparities are a prevalent issue in healthcare professions and educational institutions involved. These disparities focus on the inequalities among different populations in terms of their health outcome, in which certain populations face better or worse conditions based on their race, class, or level of education. Thus, health disparities imply that certain groups of individuals receive finer conditions or treatments in terms of access to healthcare as opposed to those that receive much less. This implies that diversity, which can range from race or socioeconomic status, is challenged, in which a select population of individuals are categorized to be treated with higher respect or little respect. By accepting this as an issue, universities
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Since health disparities focus on the unfair treatment placed on particular populations, such as poor individuals or Latinos (Grumbach & Mendoza, 2008), this gives every student attending the institution and pursuing a healthcare profession to be aware of such disparities as they enter the realm of medicine. This becomes very relevant when the course is opened to minorities pursuing the same medical path. According to Benabentos, Ray, and Kumar (2014), “Offering a health disparities course … provides the distinct advantages of exposing minority students to these [diversity] issues and encouraging them to pursue careers in health disparities” (Benabentos, Ray, & Kumar, 2014). In other words, students, especially minority students, can be inspired by health disparity focused courses and become more likely to pursue their health profession in eliminating health disparities. They, as a minority, will increase the diversity within the medical workforce and would advocate an end to health disparities occurring in medical institutions. If the universities involved are classified as “minority-serving institutions (MSIs)” (Benabentos, Ray, & Kumar, 2014), their implementation of health disparity courses will exert the same effect to the students mentioned earlier. These MSIs are …show more content…
Just like the courses mentioned earlier, these actions initiated by the teachers can prompt students to be more active in eliminating health inequalities to particular groups. In addition, with these professors readily available as advocates for increased diversity, it can potentially attract more minority students within the medical field because they would feel more comfortable with individuals that are accepting of their culture. As a result, these students would not only delve into the world of medicine, but also ensure fair treatment of every individual once they pursue and become a medical professional. Thereby, they would increase diversity in the medical field overall. According to Kai, Spencer, Wilkes, and Gill (1999), “there is currently limited published experience of how to facilitate learning to value diversity” (Kai, Spencer, Wilkes, & Gill, 1999) in terms of instructing medical students or practicing physicians. Although a system of learning to appreciate diversity has yet to be established into a traditional curriculum, this means a new system can be established and fine-tuned to ensure a stable program is made to train future, fairer medical professionals. Some ways to begin this act are “small group interactive
Since health disparities focus on the unfair treatment placed on particular populations, such as poor individuals or Latinos (Grumbach & Mendoza, 2008), this gives every student attending the institution and pursuing a healthcare profession to be aware of such disparities as they enter the realm of medicine. This becomes very relevant when the course is opened to minorities pursuing the same medical path. According to Benabentos, Ray, and Kumar (2014), “Offering a health disparities course … provides the distinct advantages of exposing minority students to these [diversity] issues and encouraging them to pursue careers in health disparities” (Benabentos, Ray, & Kumar, 2014). In other words, students, especially minority students, can be inspired by health disparity focused courses and become more likely to pursue their health profession in eliminating health disparities. They, as a minority, will increase the diversity within the medical workforce and would advocate an end to health disparities occurring in medical institutions. If the universities involved are classified as “minority-serving institutions (MSIs)” (Benabentos, Ray, & Kumar, 2014), their implementation of health disparity courses will exert the same effect to the students mentioned earlier. These MSIs are …show more content…
Just like the courses mentioned earlier, these actions initiated by the teachers can prompt students to be more active in eliminating health inequalities to particular groups. In addition, with these professors readily available as advocates for increased diversity, it can potentially attract more minority students within the medical field because they would feel more comfortable with individuals that are accepting of their culture. As a result, these students would not only delve into the world of medicine, but also ensure fair treatment of every individual once they pursue and become a medical professional. Thereby, they would increase diversity in the medical field overall. According to Kai, Spencer, Wilkes, and Gill (1999), “there is currently limited published experience of how to facilitate learning to value diversity” (Kai, Spencer, Wilkes, & Gill, 1999) in terms of instructing medical students or practicing physicians. Although a system of learning to appreciate diversity has yet to be established into a traditional curriculum, this means a new system can be established and fine-tuned to ensure a stable program is made to train future, fairer medical professionals. Some ways to begin this act are “small group interactive