Departments of Medical Education and Pediatrics, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.
Department of Pediatrics, West Virginia University School of Medicine, Morgantown, West Virginia, USA.
J Dent Educ. 2024 Jan;88(1):5-15. doi: 10.1002/jdd.13376. Epub 2023 Sep 22.
To improve health equity, dental and medical students must have a firm grasp of the proper use of race as a social construct. The purpose of this study was to determine the degree to which an innovative learning event affected students' understanding of race as a social construct. It also sought to examine the effects that personally experienced and/or witnessed racism and previous education had on students' responses to the learning event.
In 2022, all incoming first-year dental (N = 48) and medical (N = 114) students completed an online pre-matriculation assignment about the use of race in healthcare. Students initially completed an anonymous 14-item pre-survey and then read assigned publications, followed by answering questions about a real-life vignette concerning the topic of race as a social construct. Students finished the assignment by completing an anonymous seven-item post-survey. Data from the pre- and post-surveys were collected and analyzed to assess if differences existed among students and between the two surveys.
Dental and medical students were significantly more likely to endorse race as a social construct after the learning experience (p < 0.001). Students who had experienced discrimination or obtained training were more likely to define race as a social construct before and after the learning event.
Dental and medical schools can increase students' understanding of race as a social construct, rather than a biological construct, with educational interventions.
为了提高健康公平性，牙科和医学专业的学生必须牢固掌握种族作为社会建构的正确用法。本研究旨在确定一项创新学习活动在何种程度上影响了学生对种族作为社会建构的理解。本研究还探讨了个人经历和/或目睹的种族主义以及之前的教育对学生对学习活动的反应的影响。
在 2022 年，所有新入学的牙科（N=48）和医学（N=114）专业的学生都完成了一项关于在医疗保健中使用种族的在线预入学作业。学生首先完成了一项匿名的 14 项预调查，然后阅读指定的出版物，随后回答关于种族作为社会建构的现实生活案例的问题。学生通过完成一项匿名的七项后调查来完成作业。收集和分析了来自前测和后测的数据，以评估学生之间以及两个调查之间是否存在差异。
在学习经历后，牙科和医学专业的学生更有可能认可种族是一种社会建构（p<0.001）。经历过歧视或接受过培训的学生更有可能在学习活动前后将种族定义为社会建构。
牙科和医学院校可以通过教育干预措施，提高学生对种族作为社会建构而非生物建构的理解。
