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GME Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Training A Workforce to Mirror Our Community
Our efforts to create a more diverse residency program have been recognized by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education, which honored our Pediatric Residency Program with the 2022 Barbara Ross-Lee, DO Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Award.
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At Children’s National Hospital, diversity in all forms (including, but not limited to, race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity, religion and disability status) is paramount to assuring exceptional educational programs and high-quality patient care. Our Graduate Medical Education (GME) program has worked deliberately over several years to diversity our pediatric trainees, as they represent the future pediatrician and pediatric subspecialist workforce. Of the current class of pediatric interns, 51% self-identify from racial and ethnic backgrounds underrepresented in medicine, which is over three times the national average. Learn more about diversity in our residency program.
Goals of Focusing on Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
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We understand the need to assemble trainee cohorts that are as diverse as the population of patients we serve in our nation’s capital. And, of all the medical fields, pediatrics must lead in this area, because the majority of children now born in the United States are non-white.
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We want to train our residents and fellows better, and we know that training in a diverse program and in a diverse institution with a diverse patient population allows the development of a more robust skillset in cultural competency and cultural agility.
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Approximately 40% of our physician faculty have spent some part of their medical education training at Children’s National. Hence, our GME trainees are a major pipeline for our future faculty. Diversifying our GME trainees will further diversify our pediatric specialists.
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Our core mission as a hospital is to improve the health of our patients. Numerous studies have demonstrated that health outcomes are maximized when there is racial and ethnic concordance between patient and provider. Hence, to maximize health outcomes, we must diversify the physician workforce, especially in a city as diverse as Washington, D.C.
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Improving physician diversity is increasingly being recognized as an important national strategy to combat structural racism. Diversity in academic medicine and healthcare leadership can influence important research, education and financial agendas in ways that support racial equity.