Each year, Canada’s 17 medical schools receive thousands of applications from hopeful students, and come September few in comparison to the thousands that apply are awarded the chance to one day exchange their graduation gowns for a white coat.
According to the Association of Faculties of Medicine of Canada, 41,460 applications were received in 2016, with only 2,914 applicants being successful in getting accepted.
For those who are Indigenous, Black, or economically disadvantaged, admittance into a Canadian medical school can almost seem a bit more out of reach. In 2016, the University of Toronto’s (U of T) first-year medical class of 259 students had only one Black student.
But, a collaborative initiative called Community of Support is aiming to raise that number as part of its ongoing commitment towards creating a diverse student body within the U of T’s medical school.
Community of Support, which first launched in 2014, helps provide undergraduate students opportunities for mentorship, job shadowing, and research, as well as personalized guidance on admissions.
“I wanted to support the same populations from their first year of university all the way to the time of application with relevant programming,” Ike Okafor, a senior officer of service learning and diversity outreach at the U of T’s Office of Health Professions Student Affairs, said in an email. “It is important to level the playing field with the supports many other successful applicants have access to but most students from underrepresented communities do not.”
The main goal, Okafor said, is to recruit and retain students that reflect the diversity of Canadian society. He added that the program helps to prepare these students for the medical school admissions process.
“In terms of the variety of support this is the largest university-led program of its kind in Canada, and likely the largest in North America,” he said.
Earlier this year, the U of T launched a Black student application program, to help attract more Black students to apply to its medical school. The university also offers a similar program for Indigenous students.
Chika Oriuwa, a second-year U of T medical student and a mentor with Community of Support said in a Facebook message that, with respect to race and socioeconomic status, as well as other measures, her class might lack some diversity.
According to an article in the Toronto Star, the Black Physicians’ Association of Ontario estimates that 300 to 400 of the province’s 30,000 doctors are black.
According to a study published last year by the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, some white medical students tend to rate the physical pain of a hypothetical African-American patient as less severe than that of a white patient in similar circumstances. The study also says this led to medical students prescribing a different course of treatment.
Oriuwa said she’s the only Black person in her class, so it was difficult at first to find that solidarity in her identity.
She said she received support from Community of Support when applying to the U of T, and has now become a mentor for other prospective Black medical students.
“I think it’s my obligation as someone who realizes the benefit of mentorship to provide the same opportunities to those with less resources,” she said.
According to the CBC, at least 20 Black students who worked with the program will begin medical school this year, four of whom will attend the U of T, while the remaining 16 will head off to other medical schools in Canada, the U.S. and the Caribbean.
Photo by Matt Czapaly
