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Diversity in Meds?


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By diverse do you mean diverse personalities or racial diversity. If its the latter I don't think med school would be very diverse. The percentage of med students in each race would be something like this

 

Asian (Chinese, Viet, Korean, Cambodian) - 34%

Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan, Bangali) - 22%

Caucausian (White Canadians, European) - 22%

Middle Eastern (Persian, Israeli) - 20%

Other (African American, Aboriginal, Latino) - 2%

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Very much depends on the school from what I have been told.

 

If I recall (don't have hard stats on this) it is may be more diverse than the overall population (for instance according to 2006 census about 75% of people from Ontario identify themselves as white)).

 

Generally they are about 50% women/men and have been for a while. Small variations do occur of course.

 

or do you mean diversity in some other way? Programs, age range, specialty interest, political leanings.....

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What about other kinds of diversities? Sexual orientation, disability, etc?

 

Just speaking for western here (although I am aware similar things exist at many schools). We have a range of sexual orientations and clubs to support LGBTQ students.

 

Disabilities are trickier - we just had an another thread on that as there are some minimum physical abilities required to be a doctor. Physically disabled persons are relatively rare as a result but we have all the facilities in place for when they are needed.

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Where do the arrogant elitist jerks fit in?

 

A question out of interest. For those of you who have a diversified classroom, is diversity actually a positive factor in the classroom environment? That is, does it actually bring different ideas? or it doesn't really make a big difference?

There is always this assumption that diversity is good for some reason.

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What about other kinds of diversities? Sexual orientation, disability, etc?

 

There are some minority groups that can be termed "invisible minorities", and the problem with trying to "see" it in a med school class is that it is... invisible. Sexual orientation and some types of disabilities and economic disadvantage are all invisible disadvantages.

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A question out of interest. For those of you who have a diversified classroom, is diversity actually a positive factor in the classroom environment? That is, does it actually bring different ideas? or it doesn't really make a big difference?

There is always this assumption that diversity is good for some reason.

 

I think so - there have been a couple of important times when my background came to play at the school to make positive contributions that wouldn't have occurred if there wasn't that diversity. That is just me - I have seen a lot more examples from others as well.

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AFMC.CA has the racial diversity numbers for 2007 among medical students in Canada, highly doubt there has been a dramatic change since then.

 

South Asian: 5.6%

Chinese: 8.5%

Black:0.7%

Filipino:0.3%

Latin America: 0.4%

South East Asian:1.5%

 

Wow, I definitely thought there would be more Chinese/South East Asian people.

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There is always this assumption that diversity is good for some reason.

 

It's because of the evidence; for example Sommers 2006. Medical schools (as well as other institutions) are trying to be more evidence-based.

 

Whether the pro-diversity mantra is actually driven by evidence with ideology following behind or whether it's actually 'the tail wagging the dog'... I'm not sure. Probably a bit of both, if you ask me.

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diversity is closely linked to justice, either way. and medical school I hope are in tune with justice.

 

i do think diversity brings value to a group or student body. imagine if everyone was a biochem background in med school, that would just be awful when it came to speaking of social or ethical matters. The same is the case for racial diversity, somehow, I think a representation of society in the med student body is what helps that student body better meet the needs of society.

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yeah, social justice... microcosm of society... ppl told me to stop discussions with the ethics prof because i wasting medical study time... lol, yeah, me or this other girl were for sure the poorest ppl in our class... don't forget disabilities, i find that always gets overlooked, especially ones we can't see... honestly, trying to talk epistemology, research method, synthetic versus analytic science, sociology... **** it, i concluded 1/3 of my class was clinically ****ing retarded, funny thing is i have 12 chem courses (4 biochem), around 20 psych, 3-4 philosophy, religion, i read about 4 hours in the law library a week when i didn't have exams, i know the whole history of drug prohibition, and on and on... i was sure popular with the traditionalists who still have to adhere to the evidence based dogma, because accepting ebm apriori means ethical views based on superfluous moral values unquestioned over decades eventually bow to the encyclopedia of information that will hammer at you... and i can go on for hours, and hours, and hours... markov variables... uh oh

 

diversity is closely linked to justice, either way. and medical school I hope are in tune with justice.

 

i do think diversity brings value to a group or student body. imagine if everyone was a biochem background in med school, that would just be awful when it came to speaking of social or ethical matters. The same is the case for racial diversity, somehow, I think a representation of society in the med student body is what helps that student body better meet the needs of society.

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yeah, social justice... microcosm of society... ppl told me to stop discussions with the ethics prof because i wasting medical study time... lol, yeah, me or this other girl were for sure the poorest ppl in our class... don't forget disabilities, i find that always gets overlooked, especially ones we can't see... honestly, trying to talk epistemology, research method, synthetic versus analytic science, sociology... **** it, i concluded 1/3 of my class was clinically ****ing retarded, funny thing is i have 12 chem courses (4 biochem), around 20 psych, 3-4 philosophy, religion, i read about 4 hours in the law library a week when i didn't have exams, i know the whole history of drug prohibition, and on and on... i was sure popular with the traditionalists who still have to adhere to the evidence based dogma, because accepting ebm apriori means ethical views based on superfluous moral values unquestioned over decades eventually bow to the encyclopedia of information that will hammer at you... and i can go on for hours, and hours, and hours... markov variables... uh oh

 

Love this. :cool: We would be friends if both attending same med school :P

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