Medical students at Rosalind Franklin University in North Chicago decided they needed a timely message for National Public Health Week, which ended Sunday. They found one.
Racism has no place in the practice of medicine or other health-related disciplines because when it does appear, health care suffers. At Rosalind Franklin, the seven-day period was called Antiracist National Public Health Week.
Rosalind Franklin students organized their own version of National Health Week, with seven virtual daily programs designed to give them the tools to remove all biases from their mind when they begin practicing medicine.
Rebecca Durkin, the school’s vice president for student success and inclusion, said the purpose of the week was to focus on racism to improve health equity and reduce health disparity across a variety of groups and areas.
Durkin said part of the purpose of the week was to increase awareness and empathy among everyone in the community. By hearing a variety of perspectives from different races and ethnicities, people can learn from one another.
“The purpose is to improve self-awareness and understand what we all bring to the process,” Durkin said. “We need to understand what racism is, and how it lives in each of us. That’s how we build bridges with our neighbors. This discussion is never-ending.”
Nahae Kim, a second-year medical student and the lead organizer of the program, said any biases a physician may have must not influence them when they treat patients. Knowing a person belonging to a certain ethnic group or race is more likely to get a disease creates bias.
“Taking that into account when a patient walks in to see you before taking a history is going to cloud your medical judgment,” Kim said. “A doctor can automatically think that is what they have. We can’t let that happen. We don’t see humans, we see a diagnosis.”
Favour Oladipupo, a first-year medical student and another organizer, said they wanted to increase awareness with an antiracism message. They wanted to appeal to the concern each person had for others.
“We wanted to appeal to everyone’s self-awareness,” Oladipupo said “We wanted them to think about how what they do, and what they say appears to others. We wanted to have discussions about that.”
Viral Mistry, a Ph.D. candidate in neuroscience and another organizer, said he hopes to teach one day. He recognizes he will be instructing future physicians, and must think through what he says to them. He also wants to be aware of his environment and that of others.
“You have to be a good citizen in your community,” Mistry said. “You should know the history there. Could it have been a redlined area or a food desert?”
Kim said when she and other students began planning the events, they did not want to use the generalized topic outlined for the week by the American Public Health Association. They wanted to tailor it to something more meaningful and topical in light of COVID-19 and its inequities.
“Every day we wanted to do something different,” Kim said. “We wanted it to be inclusive, and part of an intersectional environment. We wanted to include Black racism and Asian hate crimes.”
Racism in all its forms, from the impact of the 1995 heat wave on the South Side of Chicago and its impact on the Black community, to the effect of climate change on health overall and on specific segments of society, were part of the weeklong discussion.
Heather Kind-Keppel, a Rosalind Franklin professor talked racism directed at the indigenous peoples of North America, including adjusting to a new way of life when they were forcibly moved from their native land.
The recent wave of hate crimes against Asian Americans was also included.
By the time the week ended, Kim said she felt empowered. It was energy draining but she walked away with an awareness which was not there before and hopefulness for the time she becomes a practicing doctor.
“This was a safe space to learn and hear from others,” Kim said. “Hopefully from this we can build a more equitable future. I feel like I have more empathy.”
“I feel enlightened,” Oladipupo added. “I gained new perspectives about antiracism. This helped individuals reflect.
Kim said they were uncertain how many people participated in one, some or all of the events, but between 20 and 40 people were online everyday during the sessions. Many were students, but there were others.
Steve Sadin is a freelance reporter.
