On March 29, the Canadian Federation of Medical Students (CFMS) sent 60 delegates to Parliament to discuss insufficient diversity in Canada’s medical schools in its third annual Federal Lobby Day.
The student-led national organization represented more than 7,000 students in 14 of Canada’s 17 medical schools.
Kiavash Najafi, legislative and communications assistant to Ottawa Centre MP Paul Dewar, said the event was a “great opportunity” to put student needs on the political agenda.
With only one day to make their voices heard, the delegates met in pairs with more than 100 MPs and Senators, urging the government to help students from rural or low-income homes attend medical school.
According to Ijab Khanafer, the CFMS vice-president (communications), the admission requirements at a medical school level are biased against these two groups.
She said students from low-income and rural backgrounds struggle to meet the same levels of academic achievement and extracurricular involvement compared to other applicants.
“It’s not that they’re not able to get the grades. It’s that they have less opportunity to obtain the same level as students who don’t have to work part-time or full-time [to finance their education],” Khanafer said.
In 2002, the Canadian Medical Association Journal published the results of surveys conducted in 2001. Reports indicated that medical students were often from “urban areas or neighbourhoods with high median family incomes [and] well-educated professional parents.”
The report also showed students from rural backgrounds were 2.5 times more likely to work in rural communities, with the same trends for low-income students.
Khanafer said the CFMS is worried about the decreased “standard of care” resulting from physicians who do not identify with the general population.
“We’re basically producing a population of physicians that’s unlikely to fully meet the needs of our [rural and low-socioeconomic] communities.”
The goal of this year’s Federal Lobby Day was to ask MPs to acknowledge the lack of diversity in medical schools as a health care issue. The delegates’ efforts yielded promising results.
“Even the MPs who aren’t more prominent Members of Parliament were very positive in their feedback . . . and helped [direct] us into our next steps,” Khanafer said.
In return, Najafi also commended the delegates on their “convincing arguments” and “well thought out” recommendations.
“Dewar is looking forward to the opportunity to discuss these recommendations with his parliamentary colleagues and begin implementing them,” he said.
The CFMS delegates encouraged the government to commit to the creation of short- and long-term solutions. They also proposed the creation of programs offering monetary incentives and grants to encourage enrolment in medical schools, mimicking the current systems already in place in Australia and the United States.
“The continued efforts of students to educate decision-makers will add to the success of the propositions,” Najafi said.