Affirmative action advocates were recently handed a new weapon for their arsenal from the results of a UCLA study researching the consequences of racial diversity on medical school students. The study found that students at more racially diverse med schools were more likely to feel capable of caring for patients from various racial and ethnic groups.

According to Eurekalert:

Medical students who attend racially and ethnically diverse medical schools say they are better equipped to care for patients in a diverse society, reports a new study in the Sept. 10 edition of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Led by the UCLA Higher Education Research Institute, the research is the first to examine the link between medical school diversity and educational benefits.

"The effects of a diverse student body have been demonstrated in higher education, but we wanted to see if the results also would apply in medical school education," said senior author LuAnn Wilkerson, senior associate dean of medical education at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. "Do white students educated in a racially diverse environment show a greater sensitivity to the healthcare needs of traditionally underrepresented minority populations or feel better prepared to meet those needs?"

… Using data supplied by the Association of American Medical Colleges, the researchers examined the responses of more than 20,000 graduating medical students from 118 medical schools during a two-year period. They found that white students who attend racially diverse medical schools said they felt better prepared than students at less diverse schools to care for patients from racial and ethnic groups other than their own. They are also more likely to endorse access to adequate health care as a societal right rather than a privilege.

Of course, who knows whether these students actually are better-equipped than their peers at more racially homogenous schools? Maybe they only think they are more prepared. Then again, if you’re about to get your appendix removed, wouldn’t you rather feel that your doctor was feeling comfortable with you?