Anti-racism bystander training: A critical need in medical schools

Abstract

Despite increasing acknowledgment of racism in both the curricular and clinical spaces, it continues to pervade the medical field, with clear detrimental impacts to the health of our patients. The introduction of anti-racism bystander training (ARBT) may provide a unique opportunity to reduce inequitable care and health disparities that occur secondary to racism in healthcare. ARBT, in its various forms, has been shown to be an effective method to increase participants’ confidence and efficacy in intervening on observed racist encounters. This training can take numerous forms, and the authors provide one successful template used with medical students at their own institution. If medical centers, educators, and leaders in the field of medicine truly hope to mitigate the individual racist behaviors that remain in healthcare, ARBT must be employed to a much wider degree in medical education.

Keywords:

• Anti-racism
• bystander training
• undergraduate
• didactic
• role-play

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Dean Amy Fleming, MD, who was critical in both the development of the curriculum and the reviewing of this paper.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.

Notes on contributors

Daniel Kyrillos Ragheb

Daniel Kyrillos Ragheb, AB, is associated with Vanderbilt School of Medicine.

Kimberly N. Vinson

Kimberly N. Vinson, MD, is associated with Vanderbilt School of Medicine.

Mya L. Roberson

Mya L. Roberson, PhD, is associated with Gillings School of Global Public Health.