This post originally appeared at Truthout.
“Always remember the ‘social determinants of health’” is a buzz phrase that I have repeatedly heard throughout my time in medical school. But I’ve rarely heard physicians really ask difficult questions about what leads our patients to become ill. Throughout the medical education process, we rarely discuss the powerful systemic structures that lead to poverty, inequality, environmental degradation and suffering. The medical school system does not teach us to confront the systems of power and the powerful who make decisions that affect millions. On the contrary, medical school functions as a highly efficient system of indoctrination to ensure that physicians are less likely to question or confront the systems of power.
Once in medical school, students typically have two years of classroom education followed by two years of clinical education (though some are beginning to vary this approach). The first two years are packed with information on microbiology, biochemistry, physiology, etc. Hours and hours must be spent memorizing chemical processes that will be forgotten shortly after they are regurgitated on an exam. In between these classes, students might have one or two required courses — if even offered at all — on “the social determinants of health.” Unfortunately, in these required courses, the conversations are limited and do little to challenge traditional worldviews. In our classes, we may touch on poverty or inequality but do not discuss what structures create those circumstances.
[For more of this story, written by Michael Pappas, go to http://billmoyers.com/story/hy...-support-status-quo/]
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