Actionable Approaches to Promote Equity in the Clinical Learning Environment

Course Overview

Despite national efforts to promote diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) in medical education, there are still widespread inequities related to supervisor or student gender, race and ethnicity in the clinical learning environment (CLE). Despite increased institutional attention to DEI, clerkship educators may not feel adequately prepared to promote equity in their rotation. The clerkship setting differs from the controlled pre-clinical classroom context given multiple competing tensions and priorities with patient care and varying learner levels. In this interactive workshop we will acknowledge these tensions and review the current evidence pertaining to bias in the CLE. Using examples from our own experience and from the medical education literature, we will discuss practical and actionable strategies to promote equity in the CLE. These will include considering DEI in various components of clinical rotations, such as developing an inclusive framework for clinical team introductions, deliberate attention to teaching cases and materials, resources for faculty and resident supervisor development for recognizing implicit bias and addressing microaggressions, continuous quality improvement around CLE metrics, enhancing exposure to diverse mentors, and other evidence-based strategies. Lastly, participants will apply knowledge from the session in group exercises and discuss their next steps to promote equity in their own courses. All participants will leave with tools and resources to disseminate at their own institutions.

Learning Objectives

Discuss key literature describing evidence of bias in the clerkship and sub-internship clinical learning environment
Identify actionable strategies to promote equity in the learning environment through considering DEI in every aspect of your rotation.
Develop plans to apply equity promotion strategies in the clinical learning environment at the individual level and at the clerkship/sub-internship-systems level at one's own institution

Speakers

Amber Pincavage MD, FACP
University of Chicago Division of the Biological Sciences, Pritzker School of Medicine

Nora Osman MD
Harvard Medical School Brigham and Women's Hospital

Chavon Onumah MD, MPH, MEd, FACP
George Washington University School of Medicine and Health Sciences

Cindy Lai MD
University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine

Additional Information

Year Published: 2022 - AIMW