Addressing Racism and Caste on Health Teams: Moving to Action

The National Center is committed to working within the Nexus of interprofessional practice and education to drive change that leads to Quadruple Aim outcomes including the creation of health equity. It is clear that implicit biases within health teams, including race, caste, and professional hierarchies, prevent full inclusion of the knowledge and experience of each team member. Implicit bias training may help raise awareness of individual biases and differential privilege and power of members of the team, but has failed to create needed culture change.

This seminar highlights two family medicine departments that are implementing practical, approachable interventions that are directly addressing the impact of racism and caste within primary care teams. Thomas Jefferson University Department of Family and Community Medicine Diversity and Inclusion at Jefferson Family and Community Medicine: Holding ourselves accountable In 2020, our department employed several diversity, equity and inclusion modules to attend to implicit bias and microaggression awareness, but not without its obstacles, notably those of “time” and “power differentials” among department members.

Members of the Jefferson DFCM will discuss our approach to navigate these obstacles by role modeling being an Upstander through photography, engaging institutional leadership in facilitating groups for discussion, and providing department members scripted language to speak up against stereotypes and discrimination in the workplace. University of Minnesota Department of Family Medicine and Community Health The UMN DFMCH has created a framework for Justice Equity Diversity and Inclusion (JEDI) work across multiple integrated domains; health equity and clinical care delivery, education/learner recruitment and training, faculty/staff workforce recruitment and retention, research, and culture/climate. Co-presenters Jean Moon, PharmD, Tanner Nissly, DO, and Andrea Westby, MD will discuss one departmental residency program clinic’s approach to moving toward radical belonging in clinical communication and documentation including the language we use with and about patients and each other.

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will be able to articulate how interprofessional practice and education units can advance on the journey to actively address racism and caste on the health team.
2. Participants will understand specific strategies to go beyond didactic trainings and raising awareness to engage in active, interprofessional workplace learning to address racism.
3. Participants will develop strategies for “next steps” in addressing racism and caste on interprofessional practice and education teams in their own settings.