Medical education is still complicit in poor healthcare outcomes for ethnic minority patients

Last year I returned to clinical practice in the UK as a paediatric registrar after taking a two year break. I needed a medical refresher, so I attended a compulsory two day course on managing the acutely unwell child. I gained some insights into new approaches, yet it quickly became obvious that the course’s guidance was almost entirely predicated on treating patients with white skin.The 300 plus page manual we were given in advance included no images of patients with obviously darker skin. Every mannequin that was used on the day was white. And there was no teaching on the day about how to assess acute illness in children with darker skin tones. When I pointed this out, the course providers acknowledged the need for diversity and said that the next course update, which was released last month, worked on this. But why wasn’t the problem tackled earlier?These omissions are…
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