Background and objectives: The influence of racism in medicine is increasingly acknowledged, and the negative effect of systemic racism on individual and population health is well established. Yet, little is known about how or whether medical students are being educated on this topic. This study investigated the presence and features of curricula related to systemic racism in North American family medicine clerkships.
Methods: We conducted a survey of North American family medicine clerkship directors as part of the 2021 Council of Academic Family Medicine's Educational Research Alliance (CERA) survey.
Results: The survey response rate was 49% (78/160). Almost all clerkship directors agreed (n=68; 97.1%) that teaching about racism at all levels of medical education was appropriate. Yet, 60% (n=42) of family medicine clerkship directors reported no formalized curriculum for teaching about racism or bias. Teaching about systemic racism was more likely to be present in the family medicine clerkship at institutions where clerkship directors reported that faculty receive 5 or more hours of training in racism and bias, as compared to institutions where faculty receive 4 or fewer hours of training in racism/bias (odds ratio 2.82, 95% CI 1.05-8.04, P=.045). Programs reported using racism in medicine curricula based in cultural competency (20%); structural competency (10%); both cultural and structural competency (31%); and neither or uncertain (40%). Clerkship directors reported high faculty, student, and institutional engagement in addressing systemic racism. We did not find an association between underrepresented in medicine director identity and racism curricula.
Conclusions: In more than half of family medicine clerkships, systemic racism is not addressed, despite interest from students and institutional support. A higher number of hours of faculty training time on the topic of racism was associated with having a systemic racism module in the clerkship curriculum, but we lacked data to identify a causal relationship. Investments in faculty development to teach systemic racism, including discussion of structural competency, are needed.