Medical, Dental Schools Are Seeing Fewer Minority Students in Their Ranks
DURHAM, N.C.
As the academic year gets under way, the nation’s medical, dental and nursing schools are seeing fewer minorities in the classroom. The numbers are so low that a commission, led by former U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Dr. Louis W. Sullivan, is examining how to boost minorities in the medical field.
“We are hearing from deans and other university officials who are saying they have none or only one new Black or Hispanic student in their classrooms for the first time in decades,” Sullivan says.
While African Americans, Hispanics or Latinos, and American Indians represent more than 25 percent of the U.S. population, they represent less than 14 percent of physicians, 9 percent of nurses, and only 5 percent of practicing dentists.
