NPR

Racism, Hazing And Other Abuse Taints Medical Training, Students Say

More than 35% of students surveyed experienced mistreatment in a U.S. medical school. "There's a direct link between this abuse and how some ... health care disparities play out," a black doctor says.
Health workers and others rallied in Seattle during a Doctors For Justice event on June 6, protesting police brutality in the wake of George Floyd's death. Medical training needs a hard look too, doctors say: Students of color and LGBTQ people often bear the brunt of what can be a bullying culture.

As doctors and nurses across the United States continue to gather outside hospitals and clinics to protest police brutality and racism as part of the White Coats for Black Lives movement, LaShyra Nolen, a first-year student at Harvard Medical School, says it's time to take medical schools to task over racism, too.

The fight for equality in medical education isn't new, says Nolen, the first black woman to serve as Harvard Medical School's student council president. But she's hopeful that the national conversation around racism in society will force hospitals and medical schools to address racism within their own institutions.

"It wasn't until over a week of riots that people started to pay attention," Nolen says. "We bring black med students to these institutions, and they

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