Background: Research has shown that cultural competence training improves the attitudes, knowledge, and skills of clinicians related to caring for diverse populations. Social Justice in medicine is the idea that healthcare workers promote fair treatment in healthcare so that disparities are eliminated. Providing students with the opportunity to explore social issues in health is the first step toward decreasing discrimination. This concept is required for institutional accreditation and widely publicized as improving health care delivery in our society.
Methods: A literature review was performed searching for social justice training in medical curricula in North America.
Results: Twenty-six articles were discovered addressing the topic or related to the concept of social justice or cultural humility. The concepts are in accordance with objectives supported by the Future of Medical Education in Canada Report (2010), the Carnegie Foundation Report (2010), and the LCME guidelines.
Discussion: The authors have introduced into the elective curriculum of the John A. Burns School of Medicine a series of activities within a time span of four years to encourage medical students to further their knowledge and skills in social awareness and cultural competence as it relates to their future practice as physicians. At the completion of this adjunct curriculum, participants will earn the Dean's Certificate of Distinction in Social Justice, a novel program at the medical school. It is the hope of these efforts that medical students go beyond cultural competence and become fluent in the critical consciousness that will enable them to understand different health beliefs and practices, engage in meaningful discourse, perform collaborative problem-solving, conduct continuous self-reflection, and, as a result, deliver socially responsible, compassionate care to all members of society.