Why cultural competency courses should be requisites for medical school

<p>"Doctors are people, and people are capable of prejudice and discrimination. But, in medicine, there is no place for prejudice and discrimination because a patient’s life is at stake. Stereotyping a customer and assuming that they cannot afford a certain product is emotionally hurtful, but it is far less dangerous than stereotyping a patient and misdiagnosing a life-threatening condition.</p> <p>The nature of the medical profession is handling a patient’s life; doctors are the last line of defense between life and death.</p> <p>As such, doctors have to balance every aspect of the patient when choosing the right treatment, and ample evidence suggests that a patient’s culture, including race, ethnicity, and class, is an important factor in determining a health outcome.</p> <p>With the stakes this high, it is vital that doctors understand the intersection of culture and medicine, and they understand it as soon as their journey into medicine begins."</p> <p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/shvetali-thatte/" target= "_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Shvetali Thatte</a> is a premedical student.</p> <p>She shares her story and discusses her KevinMD article, "Why cultural competency courses should be requisites for medical school." (<a href= "https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/07/why-cultural-competency-courses-should-be-requisites-for-medical-school.html">https://www.kevinmd.com/blog/2020/07/why-cultural-competency-courses-should-be-requisites-for-medical-school.html</a>)</p>