Racism & Medicine

**From Theory to Taking Action: Addressing Racism in Medicine**

Five part weekly course series March-May 2022
Applications open November 15, 2021
Applications are now closed.
To learn about other CHEEA programs, join our mailing list.

Join Mailing List

Course Background

Racism within medical institution in the United States creates barriers to physicians providing the best care for their patients, teaching their trainees to be excellent clinicians, conducting effective research and creating a healthy, fair and thriving workplace. Healthcare professionals have become increasingly aware of the critical need to create educational spaces to reflect on, identify, study, and continually address the ways in which racism serves as a barrier to fulfilling these and other professional responsibilities.

Program Description

The course seeks to nurture the development of anti-racism practice and advocacy by engaging participants in theory informed practice that works towards racial/ethnic health equity from the institutional to the individual level.

The course is a 5 part educational series that will be a mix of didactic work, discussion, workshops, peer learning and reflective space. Participants will receive a library of essential readings and resources. Course faculty will engage participants in discussions about how best to create change towards anti-racist practice in their work.

Target Audience

This course will be geared towards U.S. based physicians engaged in medical education and/or institutional change. Participants should have some experience in studying racism and its impact on health, and be prepared to engage in making change at their home institution.

Course Content

The course will begin with an exploration and discussion of racial identity and include opportunities to reflect on our own racial identities within a safe learning environment with peer colleagues. We will then present foundational definitions and frameworks to help think about the impacts of racism on society throughout US history. We will then examine more directly how racism has impacted health and healthcare delivery in the US. In our final two sessions, we will workshop participants' project ideas for addressing racism within their institutions or communities. Participants will propose a project idea prior to the start of the course. In the last two sessions participants will work with course faculty and peer colleagues to further develop the proposal and create a plan to implement it at their home institution or community. The course will also provide an opportunity to develop a community of physicians committed to addressing racism that can continue shared work after the course concludes. In addition to class, the course will require about 90 minutes of work outside of class per week.

Last year's syllabus can be found below, some revisions may be made to this year's syllabus.

Objectives

To provide a supportive space for participants to critically self reflect and navigate their own journey to understand the effects of racism on their practice openly and honestly

To create a shared vocabulary and review different frameworks to understand how racism is a driving force behind racial/ethnic health inequities
To understand the historical context of institutional racism in medical institutions in order to address modern perpetuations in our spheres of influence
To apply knowledge and skills learned to current work, projects, or leadership positions at home institutions

Last Year's Syllabus

Approach

The course will be co-directed by skilled educators who have facilitated numerous courses on racism in medicine and have experience in creating rich, nurturing learning environments conducive to supporting the personal growth that the study of racism asks of all of us. The course will seek to develop community, relationships, and a sense of shared purpose that enables engagement in the critical and challenging work of dismantling racism. It is our explicit intention to bring people together to talk about racism in medicine, and to build community that creates a network of colleagues who can work together into the future. We approach this work humbly, with an aim to create a space where we can all learn from one another. Course participants should be ready to engage in this work of personal growth within this learning community.