DEI in NC Medical Schools and Hospitals Spark Concerns Over Patient Safety

Reports this week of a fourth-year medical student at Wake Forest University School of Medicine’s impending graduation drew questions not only about why she was being allowed to graduate, but also about how the diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) movement is affecting medical school students and the patients for which they will ultimately care.

In April 2022, Kychelle Del Rosario was placed on extended leave after she posted a tweet on Twitter that implied she “missed” the vein of a patient on purpose while doing a blood draw because they laughed about a pronoun pin that she was wearing that said “She/Her.”

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The James G. Martin Center of Academic Renewal tried to find out what happened to Del Rosario last August but were unsuccessful. They did, however, find published articles she co-authored that may have been in the works before her leave from Wake Forest.

The Martin Center’s article also pointed out the diversity agenda that Atrium Health Wake Forest Baptist’s Office of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion had displayed on its website.

The medical school is affiliated with Atrium Health. For reference, this is the same hospital system that wanted to block parents of children ages 12-17 from having access to their child’s prescription records on CarolinaCARE, a home-delivery pharmacy service available to Atrium Health employees and their family members enrolled in the Atrium Health LiveWELL and Blue Ridge Healthcare health plans.

The hospital system soon reversed course on that policy after pushback from parents and others.

As for Del Rosario, according to a Feb. 26 post on X by Ben Shapiro, co-founder of Daily Wire and host of The Ben Shapiro Show, she is set to graduate from the medical school very soon.

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“DEI in medicine means that even if doctors injure patients, they might still be protected (even promoted),” Shapiro said on X. “It means that top hospitals are abandoning key metrics when hiring surgeons. And it means research by whites may be disregarded.”

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Shapiro then pointed to Duke University Medical School’s surgical resident Vignesh Raman as a primary example. During a presentation, Raman made comments that Duke Hospital “serves a very southern population” and is “not a VIP hospital” where people fly in from all over to get treated.  {snip}

In another clip, Raman states that after the riots protesting the killing of George Floyd, Duke’s Medical School thought something should change since the university was “essentially founded on racism and slavery.” He noted they made systemic changes to the recruitment process, including not hiring so many “walls of white men.”

He says the team was now “abandoning … all sort[s] of metrics” and is also increasing the diversity of people who read the applications of those applying so they have a better chance of being hired.

Raman also tweeted, “I would say even for academic publications….I don’t want to amplify the work of white men who only collaborate with other white men.”

Shapiro’s posts may have hit a nerve, and Duke took down the videos, but not before Carolina Journal’s opinion editor David Larson and North Carolina Congressman Dan Bishop, R-NC, commented. Bishop is running for the Republican nomination for state attorney general.

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“DEI in medicine puts innocent lives at risk,” Bishop posted. “When I’m AG, this blatant racial discrimination will not be tolerated. “

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