COM STUDENTS JOIN THE CONVERSATION
Alyssa Ahern, COM ‘23
In my eyes, working towards social justice in healthcare has a lot to do with conversation and advocacy. EDAC and its members have been a source of necessary and invaluable knowledge to discussions about social determinants of health; I love meeting with students and faculty who are passionate about bringing concepts and examples of social injustice in healthcare into our COM curriculum. However, after the death of George Floyd and COVID’s glaring racially stratified profile, EDAC and SGA leaders realized that the conversation of social justice in healthcare needed to be happening outside of the classroom. EDAC and SGA hosted a meeting with COM clubs and organizations (C&O) and encouraged student leaders to start having these difficult conversations. And we can see changes happening already. Students within COM’s C&O’s began to discuss intersections of their specific interest group and social determinants of health, examples of racism in their specialty fields, and otherwise talk about where diversity and inclusion fit into the conversations that they were already having. Now, EDAC and other clubs are hoping to initiate a COM Social Determinants of Health Month, where C&Os will host events about diversity, inclusion, and social justice, and COM students will have the opportunity to learn more about these topics and their effects in healthcare. My hope is that students will become rehearsed in these conversations so that while they may be uncomfortable, they still happen. And hopefully, advocacy will follow.
EDAC sponsored event on microaggressions
“ We know that racism is an issue important to our
medical school community -Hina Hashmi, COM '23