Enhancing Interpersonal Skills for Ethnic Diversity in Medical Practice

Abstract

Minority groups are overrepresented as patients who present with various diseases treated by the medical care system; they are under-represented as physicians in the same system. In addition, statistical projections consistently predict that there will be increasing proportions of minorities in the student population of higher education as well as in the population at large. Such a scenario suggests that medical education should, at a minimum, prepare students for understanding cultural and ethnic influences of their own health and medical beliefs and practices, and, as well, prepare them to appreciate perspectives that differ from their own cultural and ethnic orientation. A model for such preparation is evolving at Southern Illinois University School of Medicine. Implementation of the model should be considered for other medical school settings; modifications of the model may be considered appropriate for other educational settings.