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Reproducing Privilege Or Hippocratic Habitus: A Critical Discourse Analysis Of Personal Statements And The Use Of Capital To Facilitate Matriculation Into Medical School, Jessica M. Lewis

FIU Electronic Theses and Dissertations

A national physician shortage has prompted calls to diversify the demographics of medical school student bodies to address the social determinants of health plaguing underrepresented minority communities. Moreover, the Association of American Medical Colleges predicts a deficit of 104,900 physicians by 2030. Despite this, admission into medical school remains competitive, homogenous, and lacking “underrepresented in medicine” (URM) students.

Underrepresented groups historically absent from medical education show that the medical degree and overall pursuit of a medical career are tacitly affiliated with a dominant social group acting as a power agent in the reproduction of an economic class. Considering the admissions …