In a recent episode of the Wolters Kluwer Expert Insights webinar series, Dr. Yasmin Carter, an anatomist and diversity curriculum leader at the University of Massachusetts TH Chan School of Medicine, discusses an initiative to dismantle faculty concerns about developing relevant and inclusive education. talked about Materials and learning environment. With a mission to promote health equity for underrepresented groups, including the LBGTQIA+ community, Dr. Carter focuses on incorporating health equity, diversity and inclusion as a lens throughout the healthcare curriculum. I’m putting
In this presentation, Dr. Carter reaffirms the definition of bias and what we can learn from our own bias, delves into the fabric of diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I), and explores the ambitious goals of ‘debiased’ education. Talk about ideas. Materials and learning on his DE&I in medical education.
What is prejudice?
There are two types of bias that apply to medical education: implicit bias and explicit bias. With overt prejudices, individuals find themselves exhibiting intentions and prejudices toward others, especially those from marginalized groups. However, implicit bias is an unconscious and unintended response that influences judgments, decisions, and actions. Many people are unaware of their implicit biases, but recognizing them can reduce the impact of their biases on others.
It’s important to understand that everyone has prejudices. Prejudice is multifaceted and must be addressed if it can affect others. When it comes to DE&I, prejudices are often thought to be endemic to racialized groups and the LGBTQ+ community. While the impact on these groups can be greater, stigma can be driven by hundreds of different factors, including age, physical appearance, immigration status, socioeconomic status, and many of these factors. are overlapped. This overlap is called cross-reactivity.
What is DE&I?
as general as the term Diversity, Equity, Inclusion being used, we are left with no sense of what they refer to by themselves. In summary, diversity is what makes all people different from each other, including race, gender, gender and gender identity, religion, political beliefs, and more. Equity is the promotion of justice, fair treatment, and the recognition and dismantling of systems of racism. suppression. Inclusion is a creative environment where all individual identities, perspectives, ideas and beliefs are valued and respected.
When thinking about these definitions in relation to prejudice, DE&I is a way of addressing and denying prejudice. In other words, prejudice makes diversity an issue that must be addressed and creates inequity. When it comes to medical education, there should be an established base of student knowledge that addresses her DE&I in the curriculum. In doing so, students are better prepared as knowledgeable professionals for their patients, colleagues, and themselves.
DE&I in medical education
There will never be truly unbiased learning materials because everyone is biased, but educators should set the direction to do so and embrace diversity in ways that recognize fairness and improve the environment for inclusion. can work on Her one way educators implement this is through language. DRIVE is an initiative of UMass Chan that stands for diversity, representation and inclusion for value in education and supports addressing implicit bias to create resources for the goal of education without prejudice. For teacher training purposes, using tools designed to: Due to constant updates in the medical field, practice and research are needed to improve the terminology and language used in education.
The American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC) has also released recommended guidelines and introduced a topic on improving the terminology used throughout medical education to ensure that the language is appropriate and used in the appropriate place and setting. to This improvement could have a profound impact not only on the teaching experience of faculty and students, but also on future generations of patients.
Images used in presentations and educational resources are another area for improving learning materials and environments. Imaging can invite connections, facilitate recognition and improve diagnosis among patients with different skin tones while reducing the bias of different body types. A survey was conducted examining medical education textbooks and found that about 4.5% of the illustrated images represented dark-skinned individuals. In the United States, dark-skinned people make up 12.4% of her population. This equates to her 41.1 million in the United States not listed in medical textbooks. Images of people with disabilities or large individuals are rarely shown.
Creating a culture of feedback and a growth mindset are additional ways to create learning opportunities and receive constructive criticism. Modeling good behaviors and habits, listening to students, peers and patients, and creating an educational environment open to constructive feedback will help educators grow and improve what they are teaching and their goals. It is a way of paying attention to the improvements needed to achieve An educational experience without bias.
Watch the webinar recording “Diversity in medical education: Creating non-biased teaching materials and learning environments.”