Exploring Healthcare Students’ Perceptions about Race and Privilege at a Large Academic Medical Center: A Pilot Study of a Peer Education Program

Amid the racial unrest stemming from the summer of 2020, in the United States, many institutions had difficult conversations about race and the impact of racism with employees, students, and patients. In January 2021 and February 2021, we recruited undergraduate students for the Peer Education Program (PEP), a voluntary program conducted at a large academic medical center, and encouraged students to have a safe space to discuss controversial topics in healthcare. From April 2021 to July 2021 four interdisciplinary healthcare students met once a month for 1 hr to discuss privilege, race/racism, leadership, and advocacy and their influence on health equity. Four students completed PEP, and three students completed the program evaluation survey. Conventional content analysis was used to code data and identify major themes to evaluate PEP. Students described privilege in a positive context, using words like “freedom,” “special right/advantage,” and “opportunity.” Race was viewed as (1) a way to discriminate, (2) a “man-made concept” used to establish racial hierarchy, and (3) insignificant due to the complexity of human beings. Students realized there are several required steps to adopt and sustain social change in healthcare, which led to the “The Four A’s of Social Change”: Awareness, Acknowledgment, Action, and Advocacy. Program strengths included topics, guest speakers, and open dialogue. Recommended changes included allocating more time for dialogue and increasing the frequency of monthly meetings. To be an influential and empathetic leader in healthcare, one must understand the impact that privilege and race/racism have on patients and equitable healthcare.