Encouraging Diversity and Inclusion Through a Second Look
March 28, 2021
UH Research & Education Update | March 2021
By Susan Nedorost, MD, Director, Graduate Medical Education
University Hospitals’ Graduate Medical Education (GME) leadership collaborated with the Office of Community Impact, Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (CEDI) to host the Annual Second Look Event. This event gives Underrepresented in Medicine applicants a chance to learn more about how they will be embraced into our learning environment. Attendance for this virtual event was higher than ever, with over 100 applicants and many faculty attending.
University Hospitals’ values: Excellence, Diversity, Integrity, Compassion, and Teamwork are the core values that drive our faculty, who provide rigorous and in-depth training to UH residents and fellows. There is no question that all types of diversity make these teams stronger. Inclusion is inherent in all the values, and it is what sustains diversity.
To ensure all house staff and patients feel respected as part of the care team, the UH GME Health Systems Science Curriculum offers experiential learning in leadership, stewardship, and population health. Leadership training includes self-awareness, respect for others, and training in managing micro-aggressions. Stewardship promotes patient-centered care, including creating and using shared decision-making tools and using any data set to look for disparities. Through mini-rotations in our accountable care organization, home healthcare, and rehabilitation hospitals, trainees can understand the relationship between our large health system and the population we serve.
Outreach is a necessary effort to increase diversity. Our Resident Forum representatives connect interested residents and fellows to mentor CEDI Health Scholars students as they prepare their college essays and applications.
In the hope of inspiring self-reflection and awareness, each year we survey faculty and house staff regarding how often they hear or make disparaging remarks about physicians, other professionals, residents, medical students, and patients. The survey data is reported in the GME annual report.
The GME leadership is committed to data-driven continuous improvement in all of us as individuals (professional and personal development), as teams, and as a learning health system. We enjoy the process of getting better together and hope our Second Look attendees will join us.