There’s an old saying that goes like this: “There are no atheists in foxholes”. The idea being that times of extreme stress or fear can prompt a belief in a higher power.
In other words, no matter how much you don’t believe in God, you’re likely to change your mind when the enemy starts shooting at you.
Most of us are probably never going to have the experience of being shot at by an enemy combatant. But almost everyone is going to end up in the hospital at one point or another.
Let me ask you this. If you were having a life-threatening medical emergency, would you consider, even for a second, the DEI policies of the hospital you’re being admitted to?
Of course you wouldn’t.
Regardless of how many pride stickers you have on the back window of your car, when faced with a life-or-death situation, you’re going to quickly divest yourself of any diversity, equity and inclusive thoughts you may hold.
You’re not going to give a shit if your doctor is a member of the patriarchy or has a white privilege card. The only thing you’re going to care about is whether or not your doctor is the person most likely to be able to save your life.
And if you think otherwise, then you’re just not being honest with yourself.
Because there’s no such thing as “woke” in the emergency room. When faced with possible loss of your life, you’re not going to pay any attention to that hospital’s stance on DEI.
But you should.
In the Beginning…
Since 1765, when the first medical school was established here in what would become the United States, the schools have had a set of standards designed to ensure that the highest quality doctors are being produced.
Now, clearly those policies have evolved over time. For example, we don’t do a lot of bloodletting anymore nor are we pumping people full of opium. But the changes to the policies have always been to ensure that the graduating doctors are the best of the best.
These days, not so much.
Medical schools all over the country are letting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion policies drive their admission process. In a way, I kind of get it. The idea is that members of a minority are more likely to seek medical help, and take advice, from someone who looks like them.
So, one could argue that the D part of DEI, that is “Diversity”, is a good thing. And I might even be able to buy into the argument except for one small thing. The people creating and implementing the DEI programs care only about quantity and not quality.
Too Much of a Bad Thing
To have a diverse student body, colleges need to have a diverse group of people apply for admission. And that alone is fine. I could easily get behind a recruitment program that sought out the best people regardless of their race or economic status.
I could also get behind scholarships to worthy students so that their economic status wasn’t an issue. That is, if those scholarships were being granted to students who are highly likely to develop into excellent doctors.
So, one could argue that the I part of DEI, that is, “Inclusion”, is also a good thing. And I might even be able to buy into that argument except for another small thing. The “Equity” part of DEI. Because as defined by DEI, “Equity” doesn’t mean equality of opportunity, it means equality of outcome.
Which means that the DEI initiatives aren’t about giving all applicants the equal opportunity to be selected for admission. No, the DEI initiatives are about making sure that approximately the same number of white, black, brown and yellow candidates get accepted into their program.
What’s happening is that the admission requirements are being nerfed so that more of these diverse people can be accepted as students.
GIGO
At any given medical college, there are a finite number of seats in the classroom. Colleges used to base their admission standards on the chance that, once accepted, a student will excel. But these days, their primary goal is to have as diverse a student body as possible. So, they changed the admission standards to make it easier for the lesser qualified candidates to be accepted.
Which shouldn’t be a big deal because the education programs are designed to eliminate the students that aren’t succeeding. Right?
Well, not so much.
What medical schools have discovered is that most of the people they let into the program in the name of Diversity and Inclusion don’t have the intelligence or mental fortitude to become doctors.
Which brings “Equity” back into play. The people in charge of DEI at these universities won’t make their bonus if only white men graduate and become doctors. They need to have an approximately equal number of diverse and inclusive students become doctors as do white folks.
But you can’t turn a bunch of diverse and inclusive students into doctors if they all flunk out of school.
So, college administrations everywhere have done the only thing they could do. They put less emphasis on a student’s test scores and more emphasis on the color of their skin.
But there’s only so much they can hide.
And they Call Themselves Doctors?
In 2021, the UCLA David Geffen Medical School started implementing a DEI program. Of a recent class taking standardized tests on family medicine, internal medicine, emergency medicine and pediatrics, 50% of them failed. Nationally, the average failure rate is 5%, but woke UCLA’s students are failing at a rate 10 times higher than the national average.
These tests are normally taken at the end of clinical rotations and are used in applications to residencies. Which happens after the student has graduated from medical school. Which means that half of the doctors produced by UCLA are woefully unprepared to actually be doctors.
Now, normally you wouldn’t have to worry about getting a substandard doctor. Because what would happen is that these degreed-but-not-qualified doctors wouldn’t land a residency in a prestigious hospital or in an affluent community. No, they’d find a job in a less-than-prestigious hospital, traditionally in poor communities.
But, if your hospital also has a DEI program, they’re not going to focus on hiring exceptional doctors but are instead going to focus on hiring people who check off certain boxes.
And one of those boxes is not if the doctor actually knows what they’re doing.
Spread the Incompetence
Which means that now everyone has an equal chance of being treated by a diverse and inclusive “doctor” who wouldn’t even have a license if not for college and hospital administrators’ desire to collect on their annual bonus.
Which, I guess, is a roundabout way of making sure there is equity of outcome.
So, when you find yourself in need of life-saving medical attention, you absolutely should pay attention to the DEI policies of the hospital you’re being admitted to.
Because, while there is no place for “woke” in the emergency room, it might just be there anyway.
