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First and foremost, what I am about to say has nothing to do with these fields as a whole, just pattern recognition over my short career in medicine. The smartest medical students go into subspecialties, whether it be medical (Gastrointestinal, Cardiology) or surgical (Plastic Surgery, Orthopedic Surgery, Otolaryngology). These students, in order to be competitive for such specialties, must have the highest grades in school, the highest board score ranks in the country, be AOA (Medical Honors Society), and do well in 3rd and 4th year clerkships (which translates into these students being both intelligent, hard working, and well liked). In addition, people that go into these specialties have difficulty practicing in rural areas because these areas do not have a large enough patient population to sustain a practice. Therefore, they practice in cities, typically with universities associated with them.
On the other hand, students that do not do as well on their board exams, do not do as well in school, etc. typically go into primary care (Family Medicine, Internal Medicine, Pediatrics). Again, I am not saying all of those in these specialties fit this bill, because I know many of them that know far more than I and many of my surgical subspecialty colleagues. But, this is a fact which has been proven year after year.
So, if this bill passes, funding will be preferentially given to those schools who produce students who typically may not work as hard or may not be as intelligent. Also, funding will be given to schools that base a portion of their acceptance criteria on race and ethnicity.
I am in favor of equality and equal rights. I think all man kind are created equal. But, this does not mean that I agree that a certain group of people get preference over another group who are at least, if not more, qualified for the same position. Despite background, we all have choices we make day in and day out. We choose whether to wake up in the morning. We choose whether we are going to work today or sleep in. We have a choice for every single action we make every day of our lives. This, I don't think, is the problem. I believe the problem is people do not want the responsibility of their choices. For example, if someone was breaking into my home and went into my children's room, I would use a firearm with deadly force. I would choose to take a man's life in order to protect my children who are in imminent danger. If I were to go to court, lose the case, and get sentenced to jail, I would be able to live with my choice. I know this is an extreme circumstance, but if people would say to themselves, "Am I satisfied with any possible result of the decision I am about to make?" then I think people would be more successful overall.
So, for people to think they can be a medical or surgical physician because they are underrepresented in the fields, they should stay home and study in high school instead of going to a football game, or they should pass on this weeks episode of American Idol and read from their textbook instead. Medicine is not the time to give people positions based on race and ethnicity. Medical school, residency, and being a doctor is hard work. It is mentally grueling and takes an unexplainable amount of self-determination to succeed. It is supposed to be competitive between those most qualified, even if time and time again it is the non-underrepresented minorities.
I don't know about any of you who actually read this, but I do not want my medical care, whether in life threatening situations or routine office visits, from someone who is a doctor because of race and ethnicity and not qualifications.
Check out this video that sums it up.
Hi I'm someone who's just passing by.
ReplyDeleteI believe that people with certain race and low end social status might have heard that they need to work hard, do their homework, reduce their sleeping time to achieve better life. But they don't know what it is like, no one around them has ever done that. We take it all granted, educated family, rich neighbor, the culture around us just show what we're supposed to be. Once you acknowledge that, you'll see the people who didn't have this environment and how this affects on one's life. This is definitely unfair_so as all minority supporting laws_and yet necessary. We're giving them a chance for beginning, and market will evaluate whether they are qualified or not. If their end skill for practice is not good enough for any situations, they are on their own as like any other 'more' pre_qualified doctors with poor skills got expelled but it's not your concern.