Remembering Freddie Gray: Medical Education for Social Justice

TLDR

The death of Freddie Gray has spotlighted racial disparities in law enforcement and prompted concern that medical education may not adequately prepare physicians to care for patients whose health is shaped by systemic inequities, and that curricula should help trainees recognize and address institutional complicity in denying equitable care. The authors propose that medical school curricula should explicitly address these concerns through a pedagogical orientation. They outline a curriculum that combines antiracist pedagogy and structural competency, detailing specific strategies and resources to engage learners in caring for patients victimized by severe social and economic disadvantages.

Abstract

Recent attention to racial disparities in law enforcement, highlighted by the death of Freddie Gray, raises questions about whether medical education adequately prepares physicians to care for persons particularly affected by societal inequities and injustice who present to clinics, hospitals, and emergency rooms. In this Perspective, the authors propose that medical school curricula should address such concerns through an explicit pedagogical orientation. The authors detail two specific approaches-antiracist pedagogy and the concept of structural competency-to construct a curriculum oriented toward appropriate care for patients who are victimized by extremely challenging social and economic disadvantages and who present with health concerns that arise from these disadvantages. In memory of Freddie Gray, the authors describe a curriculum, outlining specific strategies for engaging learners and naming specific resources that can be brought to bear on these strategies. The fundamental aim of such a curriculum is to help trainees and faculty understand how equitable access to skilled and respectful health care is often denied; how we and the institutions where we learn, teach, and work can be complicit in this reality; and how we can work toward eliminating the societal injustices that interfere with the delivery of appropriate health care.