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Research Objectives
To assess whether U.S. medical students and resident physicians (trainees) at Historically
Black Colleges & Universities (HBCUs) displayed any racial bias in the assessment
of pain or treatment recommendations; if they held any false beliefs about biological
differences between Blacks and Whites, and if they were equally, more, or less accurate
in their treatment recommendations for pain in Black vs White patients as a result
of their beliefs and/or biases.
Design
This was a descriptive cross-sectional study. Each trainee was asked to read 2 mock-medical
cases about a Black patient and a White patient, asked to estimate each patient's
pain in each of 2 scenarios which are generally known by medical trainees to be significantly
painful in nature, and then asked for their treatment recommendations based on this
estimate. They were then given a 15-question survey to measure their preexisting beliefs
about biological differences between Black and White people.
Setting
The study took place among U.S. medical students and resident physicians (trainees)
at Howard University.
Participants
96 medical students & residents.
Interventions
N/A.
Main Outcome Measures
The presence of false beliefs between races; the impact of false beliefs on treatment
recommendations, and treatment recommendations based on the patient's race.
Results
When compared to the landmark 2016 UVA study, significantly less HBCU-affiliated (predominantly
BIPOC) students and residents held any false beliefs about biological differences
between Blacks and Whites; their false beliefs (if any) did not impact the treatment
of the sample patients, and their assessment of pain was not impacted by the patient's
race. Interestingly, the White respondents at Howard also did not exhibit any racial
bias in pain assessment or treatment recommendations, indicating that perhaps active
teaching and implicit bias training by HBCUs counteracts racial bias in these individuals.
Conclusions
These findings strongly support the need for pipeline programs to improve exposure,
recruitment, development, and retention of Black students in medicine, as well as
continued support of HBCU medical schools.
Author(s) Disclosures
The authors have no conflicts to disclose.
Keywords
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Copyright
© 2022 Published by Elsevier Inc.
