Asian American students often experience racism and microaggressions in medical schools, highlighting an opportunity to improve training environments for this population, according to a study published Sept. 11 in JAMA Network Open.
The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a sharp increase in racial discrimination and violence against Asian Americans. To understand how this trend has affected the healthcare industry, a team of researchers from New Haven, Conn.-based Yale University interviewed 25 Asian American students from 17 U.S. medical schools between July 2021 and August 2022.
Most students reported experiences of racism and microaggressions, including being accused by patients or colleagues of having COVID-19 because they were Asian. Students also reported feeling invisible in their medical education environments, often noting a complete absence of Asian American health in their curricula. Some students also said they were mistaken for other Asian American students throughout the school year.
"The students described themselves as not being able to work or focus, unable to even think about medicine because of these constant racist experiences that kept appearing during their training," lead author David Yang, MD, a fellow in the emergency medicine department at Yale School of Medicine, said in a news release. "I know from my own experience that this type of environment can lead to a lot of mental health problems, burnout, and, at the very worst, suicide attempts and deaths by suicide."
Students identified several changes medical students could make to improve the training experience, including adding lectures on Asian American health and increasing Asian American representation among leaders.