Equity and Inclusion

We strive to re-envision equity in graduate medical education systems. To that end we have partnered with Children’s National’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Subcommittee on Students, Residents, and Fellows to systemically embed a focus on equity and inclusion. Recent initiatives include: 

• Underrepresented in Medicine (UIM) Mentorship Lattice - CNH established a Mentorship Lattice centering around the experience of UIM trainees and junior faculty. This program matches UIM residents and fellows with a diverse network of junior faculty mentors, and UIM junior faculty with a diverse network of senior mentors. The purpose is to build a community of support for participants through mentor matching and to enhance academic advancement for our community at large through professional development events that are available house-wide.
• Bias and Discrimination Data to Drive Change – We know that people experience bias and microaggressions and that the hidden curriculum continues in medicine. Because of this, Children’s National revised the way we report and assess instances of bias and discrimination. Additionally, we incorporated questions regarding bias into residents’ evaluations of each core clinical rotation.  We aim to leverage data to drive improvement. 
• Racial Justice in Residency -  We have established a program assessment for diversity, inclusion and equity in GME that is being applied locally and studied nationally.
• Protection of Patients and Families – Children’s National understands our responsibility to protect our patients from institutional racism.  The SWIFT team (Social Worker Intervention for Families and Teams) has been established to reduce the use of security officers  that disproportionately impacts patients and families of color in healthcare settings.