On this episode of White Coat Wednesday, we meet Min Kang, a third-year UQ-Ochsner student looking to improve the experiences of minorities in medicine.
When Min was in school her family moved from South Korea to Texas, and she experienced first-hand the racism and stereotyping which so many immigrant children face. Later, as a teacher in a public school, she witnesses again how some students were treated differently because of their socio-economic standing, the colour of their skin or their sexual orientation.
It was these experiences and more which led Min to co-found Minorities in Medicine, a safe space for medical students to talk about their experiences and work towards creating change.
“I worked in healthcare, and I saw [discrimination] in the community from patients, from physicians, from coworkers. It never really stops,” Min explains.
“I think in society as a whole we’ve got a lot better at recognising these things, but it’s not completely solved. So, if we could create any steps towards creating a safer environment, that’s what spurred us to do this.”
Minorities in Medicine has already hosted some events, some which are simply a safe space for students to talk but others where the group has commissioned speakers of minority status.
“Throughout medicine we get a lot of lectures from academics and very knowledge-based things, but I was really interested in hearing the backstory of how some of the physicians we work with have overcome struggles in diversity,” says Min.
“I wanted to be able to share those experiences with our students and hopefully get some representation and some role models that look like us, that talk like us, that have lived like us and have made it to become these amazing physicians that we look up to today. I think that was […] lacking in our medical curriculum and I’m excited to fill that gap.”
Minorities in Medicine has further ambitious plans. They are hoping to roll out an anonymous survey for students to report adverse events. The results will then be submitted to the administration with the hope of raising awareness, and creating change and a safer environment for the students of the future.
