Equality and diversity education
March 2008
This briefing examines equality and diversity in medical education, in response to the NHS Employers’ partnership action plan 'Equal values: equal outcomes' [reference 1]. This asked the BMA to support the Medical Schools Council, the General Medical Council (GMC), the royal colleges, the Postgraduate Medical Education and Training Board (PMETB) and deaneries in producing guidelines for incorporating education and training on equality and diversity into the undergraduate and postgraduate curricula, and promoting a general understanding of equality and diversity. In addition, the BMA has a mandate to lobby the health departments to ensure that training on culture and diversity awareness and equal opportunities is made available to all NHS staff.
This resource is divided into three sections:
Part 1 – Equality and diversity in medical education – of this briefing outlines the views of the BMA Equal Opportunities Committee and the Medical Education Sub-committee on education in equality and diversity. In April 2007, Part 1 of the briefing was sent to the GMC, the PMETB, the Medical Schools Council, the medical royal colleges and faculties, and postgraduate deaneries in order to initiate discussion and the sharing of views on how equality and diversity education in medicine could be delivered, and demonstrated to be effective.
Part 2 - Examples of practice in equality and diversity education – is a summary of the 24 responses received. The organisations were asked to explain how they currently incorporated or supported equality and diversity education for students or doctors, what education and assessment methods were used, and what the expected outcomes were. Views were also sought on how equality and diversity education should be included in medical curricula and continuing professional development, how it should be assessed, and how it should be monitored to demonstrate outcomes.
Part 3 - Conclusions and recommendations – of this briefing draws conclusions from the findings and suggests recommendations on how equality and diversity education in medicine could be progressed.