Updates and Recommendations After Implementing an Indigenous Health Curriculum Into a Medical School Curriculum

This is the Evergreen Longhouse Education and Cultural Center, at Evergreen State College, called sgʷigʷialʔtxʷ, which means “The House of Welcome” in Salish. While there is not a medical school here, there are several programs that place Indigeneity in the forefront whether it be course content, building and classroom architecture and design, or Indigenous learning methods. Not only do students meet and learn in a traditional Salish structure, but their course content and learning techniques are influenced by tribal community members and contemporary Indigenous issues. By: Melissa Lewis, PhD M. Lewis is assistant professor, Department of Family and Community Medicine, University of Missouri School of Medicine, Columbia, Missouri. In our recent Academic Medicine article, my coauthor and I described the development and reported preliminary outcomes of an Indigenous health curriculum for first-year medical students at the University of Minnesota Medical School, Duluth campus (UMMSD). Here I’d like to provide an update on the program and recommendations for other universities attempting to update their curricula to include similar content. Update The UMMSD has been delivering this curriculum to medical students for three years now (2013–2016). We asked students what they thought of this content via an anonymous, informal survey; and they had the following to say: “I absolutely loved these sessions. As an institution that values Native American health, I t...
Source: Academic Medicine Blog - Category: Universities & Medical Training Authors: Tags: Featured Guest Perspective cultural competence curriculum development indigenous health underserved populations Source Type: blogs