By your language, customs and culture and… (throughout history) knowing that you’re not English! I finished the encounter and presented my findings to the attending physician. She saw me as a fellow black lady, a sister, and automatically assumed that I would want the best for her child. The month of February is designated as Black History Month, a time to honor the achievements by African Americans and their contribution to U.S. history. 'Black History Month'? Education Each year Americans dedicate a few weeks to recognize the contributions that people of African descent have made to this country. Myeloma Drug's Eye Toxicity Faces FDA Scrutiny, Alternative CKD Screening Methods Cheap, Clinically Useful, Updated Results on MURANO and ASCEND in CLL. The business of women’s health: an economic burden with simple solutions, What we define as “right” in primary care matters, Study: Immune Response Varied Among COVID-19 Patients. The attending came into the room, spoke to the lady, and tried to convince her to get the vaccines. Especially when it comes to children and gender. In honor of Black History Month, I wrote this article to say thank you to all the wonderful black doctors breaking boundaries and exploring careers that would have been unattainable to black people in late 1800 and even early 1900 America. This brings me to the notion of how ‘Britishness’ (and perhaps particularly ‘Englishness’) has been historically constructed. All identity (not just historical notions of a British ‘ethnic’ identity) is forged as much by what it is;as much as by what it is not. Next post > The journey from expectation to agreement. How do you know you are a Scot? So, to my fellow black men and women who are defying the odds, and weaving your paths into places of influence, thank you! Legislators, please stay out of our exam rooms. By your language, customs and culture and (throughout history) by knowing you were not ‘a French or a Spanish Catholic’ or ‘a Lutheran German’ etc. | February 19, 2020. Tagged as: Not for me, thank you. The way any society remembers and teaches its history is a reflection of its values. Here’s why. Watch this sample of the video-module 'Can you teach British values? My life was one of her answered prayers. Please read the comment policy. Comments are moderated before they are published. Your presence in those places matter. | I presume that they are my folks/sisters/family, and I always feel a sense of belonging around them. Other historians maintain that antithetical attitudes towards ‘Islam’ and ‘Africans’ as the ‘other’ have been present in European historical consciousness since antiquity [1]. Get free updates delivered free to your inbox. But why is February designated as the month to commemorate African American history? In other words, by identifying and defining oneself with and by distinctive characteristics - but also in contrast to an ‘other’. My first objective structured clinical examination, Don’t worry, medical students don’t judge, What this student learned from a standardized patient exam, A seasoned trainee: A doctor who shouldn’t have been, 13 tips for medical students starting their clinical rotations, As a medical student, you find potential patients everywhere, The tension between intense commitment and physical, emotional, and interpersonal well-being, Where’s Waldo: Finding what’s important in the medical record. A few minutes later, the attending returned to the room, and the woman said, “I’m going to get my son vaccinated.” He was surprised by her sudden change of mind and was pleased about her decision. The History of Black History Month Thank You, Black History Month. A few weeks ago, I was working in the pediatrics outpatient clinic, and an African American woman came in with her son for his yearly “well-child visit.” As usual, I reviewed the well-child algorithm/questionnaire with her. The cancel culture and the erasure of less just times and imperfect people, Inside the mind of the surgeon writer [PODCAST]. That’s still how I look at Black History Month: It’s a Thank You. In my mind, acknowledging Black History Month was a way to thank a woman whose blessings had trickled down to me. Will the Supreme Court destroy the Affordable Care Act? Black people have been part of British history from the earliest historical records. She nodded in agreement with me. Delivering health care at a retail clinic isn’t something to be proud of, A physician’s experience of bigotry in medicine, I’m a doctor in a family of COVID deniers, How MOC is contributing to the demise of physicians. To all the black doctors, your representation in medicine matters a lot. I’m pretty sure this woman didn’t finally decide to vaccinate her child because she thought that I was smarter than the attending. Help us stay in touch with you by signing up for our newsletter at: middlechurch.org/subscribe Though the process is fraught with risk, the teaching of something like the British Empire should be taught with confidence and honesty - not with guilt, shame, embarrassment or denial – all emotions that are unhelpful to the study of history. etc. Alan Newland worked as a teacher, teacher-trainer and headteacher in London for over 20 years and then for over a decade with the DfE and the GTC. So you want to be a doctor? And let’s also reflect on where we are today. Their stories, contributions and tribulations are known through the lives of soldiers, traders, authors, slaves, servants, courtiers, campaigners, princes and kings who came to Britain from … Primary Care. He educated her on the importance, long term benefits of vaccines, and the risks of being unvaccinated, but the lady was very hesitant. Abena Oduro The journey from expectation to agreement. No one can compare the knowledge and experience of an attending physician to that of a third-year medical student. Black people have been part of British history from the earliest historical records. Their stories, contributions and tribulations are known through the lives of soldiers, traders, authors, slaves, servants, courtiers, campaigners, princes and kings who came to Britain from the time of the Roman occupation in AD43 through to the courts of the Tudors, the Stuarts, the Georgians, the Victorians and the twentieth century. < Previous post Legislators, please stay out of our exam rooms. Especially when it comes to children and gender. So this Black History Month let’s say thank you to figures from our past who we haven’t always thanked before. In my view, this is not ‘black history’, it is British history. By Andy Gallion. During the consultation, the attending was called by another person, so he left the room. The algorithm includes questions about the child’s psychosocial wellbeing, developmental milestones, vaccinations, to mention but a few. The lady mentioned that her son hadn’t received the flu vaccine because she doesn’t trust/like vaccines. Here are 10 truths. Names and events like Ukawsaw Gronniosaw (James Albert), Olaudah Equiano (Gustavus Vassa), Dido Belle, Ottobah Cugoano (John Stuart), James Somerset, Lord Mansfield & the slave ship Zong, Francis Barber & Samuel Johnson, Jonathan Strong & Granville Sharpe, Bill Richmond, the Sierra Leone African colony & Zachary Macaulay, the West Africa Squadron, Sarah Forbes Bonetta & Queen Victoria, Mary Seacole, William Wilberforce and the Abolitionist Movement, Mary Prince, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Frederick Douglass, the Lancashire Cotton Famine, the service of Commonwealth soldiers in both world wars, Learie Constantine and the Lancashire Cricket League, Harold Moody and the League of Coloured Peoples, Paul Robeson, Black GIs in England, Claudia Jones, the Bristol Bus Boycott, the Empire Windrush, the Notting Hill riots, the Notting Hill Carnival, Johnson Beharry (and that doesn’t include Asians, other ethnic minorities or people of colour like Dadabhai Naoroji, Manchergee Bhownaggree and Noor Inayat Khan, nor does it include contemporary history).