Johnson’s research paper highlights lingering imperfections in the medical school education pipeline and imagines the healing that awaits communities when healers raised in those communities return to them.
PNWU Student Doctor Kasey Johnson is slated to present at The Association for Medical Humanities’ (AMH’s) 2021 AMH International Conferenceafter being awarded a student research prize by the UK-based association. Johnson’s paper, titled “Making Space for Students from Widening Access Backgrounds: Socioeconomic Diversity, Historical Contexts, and the Need for Reimagining of Criteria and Culture within Medical Education,” was awarded the third place AMH Research Student Prize.
“My paper is about widening access to medical school for students from diverse socioeconomic backgrounds,” Johnson explained. “As a low-income student, I was really interested in what it means for patients experiencing poverty to have providers who don’t share their socioeconomic background.”
By examining the current socioeconomic demographics of medical school matriculants, the history of medical education in the United States, and how standardization is used to exclude black, Indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) and low-income students, Johnson digs at lingering imperfections in the education pipeline and explores the impact that they have on community health.
“A cornerstone of my project was Paul Starr’s The Social Transformation of American Medicine, along with a 2018 AAMC report that showed only 5% of medical student matriculants come from the lowest economic quintile in the United States — a trend that hasn’t changed in 30 years,” explained Johnson. “As a low-income medical student, it was important for my self-actualization to see those statistics. I was really interested in exploring and subverting the idea that widening access would somehow weaken the profession. Rather, what happens when medical schools make a commitment to recruit and train students from communities made vulnerable by systemic inequality? What knowledge and expertise awaits medical education if it actively commits to a diverse student population? Furthermore, what healing awaits communities when healers raised in those communities return to them?”
“PNWU prepared me for this by being a medical school committed to serving rural and underserved communities,” Johnson said. “I’m also an NHSC Scholar, and I never would have applied for that scholarship without the encouragement of peers and faculty at PNWU. I think the mission of the school attracts students who come from, identify with, and are seeking to serve underserved communities. It’s really a pleasure and honor to be on the road to healing and helping others to heal. I’m learning every single day.”
As a student research award winner, Johnson will be presenting virtually at the 2021 AMH International Conference,hosted by the University of Limerick, which will take place from June 15-17, 2021.