Increasing diversity among clinicians

doi:10.1136/bmj.39569.609641.80

BMJ 2008;336:1082-1083 (17 May), doi:10.1136/bmj.39569.609641.80

Editorials

Increasing diversity among clinicians

Is politically correct but is costly and lacks evidence to supportit

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

UK medical students tend to come from higher socioeconomic classes,¹perhaps not surprisingly, as social class correlates with intellectualability.² As part of the UK government’s widening participationinitiative, there is a push to increase the proportion of studentsfrom lower socioeconomic classes (as well as mature students,those from minority racial groups, and disabled people) in highereducation. Two underlying principles exist for medicine in particular.The first, social justice, aims to ensure fair access to a degreecourse that is the gateway into the medical profession.³ Thesecond is the belief that a diverse population of doctors canbetter serve a diverse population of patients.⁴ To help promotewidening participation, the Higher Education Funding Councilfor England and the Department of Health have provided fundingto medical schools for projects such as outreach schemes atlocal schools and innovative degree programmes.⁵

In the accompanying article, Garlick and Brown . . . [Full text of this article]

Hugh Ip, student editor¹, I C McManus, professor of psychology and medical education²

¹ BMJ Editorial, BMA House, London WC1H 9JR, ² Division of Psychology and Language Sciences, University College London, London WC1E 6BT

hughip@gmail.com

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