2nd Annual Diversity & Inclusion Forum

Keynote - Grand Rounds (CME): Living Our Values: Embracing Diversity, Inclusion, and Belonging

Joan Reede, MD, MS, MPH, MBA
Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School
Berg Hall, LKSC

They Say, Therefore I Am: Stereotype Threat and its Impact on Medical Trainees

Matthew Edwards, MD, Brandi Criss, MD, Daniel Hernandez, MD, Vania Singleterry, MD, Jeffrey Yang, MD, Kathy Zabrocka, MD, Charlene Rotandi, AB, C-TAGME, Meera Sankar, MD, Belinda Bandstra, MD, MA, Carmin Powell, MD

Stereotype threat triggers physiological and psychological processes that increase individuals’ risk of conforming to negative stereotypes associated within a group (Steele and Aronson 1995). This workshop will provide an overview of stereotype threat with a focus on its impact on the performance of medical trainees and their overall well-being. We will identify strategies, including educational, mindfulness, and cognitive behavioral therapy-based techniques, for clinician-educators and medical trainees to recognize and address the impact of stereotype threat and its consequences. 

Objectives:

1. Define stereotype threat and understand the impact of stereotype threat on the performance of medical trainees.
2. Describe how performance could be affected by stereotype threat in various medical education settings.
3. Implement strategies for both clinician-educators and medical trainees to recognize and mitigate stereotype threat.

Words Hurt: Identifying and Removing Stigmatizing Language from Clinical Settings

Devika Bhushan, MD, Peter Leahy, MD, Tiffany Lee, MD, Ria Pal, MD, Julia Raney, MD, Samuel Ricardo Saenz, MD, MPH, Michael Gisondi, MD, Kim Hoang, MD, Carrie Johnson, MBA, Cynthia Kapphahn, MD, MPH, Natalie Kirilcuk, MD

Stigmatizing language, such as casting doubt on patient's experiences, negatively portraying a patient, or using pejorative linguistic variations, has been shown to negatively impact providers' decision-making. This interactive workshop examines how language in medical documentation and verbal communication can unintentionally reflect and perpetuate stigma, as well as strategies to mitigate this language. 

Objectives:

1. Recognize how providers’ language biases can impact patient care in the clinical setting.
2. Describe innovative strategies that can be used to mitigate providers’ language biases.
3. Apply these strategies and toolkit to common clinical scenarios.

Do I Belong Here? Imposter Syndrome and its Impact on Diversity of the Medical Workforce

Elana Feldman,MD, Nancy Rivera, MD, Dimitri Augustin,MD,  Amanda Rigas,MD, Taranjit Bains, Wendy Caceres,MD, Hayley Gans, MD, Becky Blankenburg, MD, MPH

Imposter syndrome, the internalized feeling of not belonging in a particular group, is common in the medical professions. Its impact is felt at all levels of training and is particularly pervasive among historically underrepresented groups in medicine. Through discussion, interactive activities, and brief didactics, we will address the impact of imposter syndrome in our institutions and on the workshop participants as individuals. Participants will develop tools to address imposter syndrome at the individual and institutional levels. After participating in the workshop, attendees will have the skill to recognize imposter syndrome both in themselves and the people that they are working with, an understanding of the impact of imposter syndrome on the diversity of the medical professions, and tools that they can use to address imposter syndrome.

Objectives:

1. Define imposter syndrome
2. Discuss the impacts of imposter syndrome on and its effect on the diversity of the medical workforce
3. Develop tools to address imposter syndrome

John is Confident, Jada is too Assertive: How to Recognize and Minimize Bias in Written Trainee Evaluations

Kamaal Jones, MD, Maria de Lourdes Eguiguren, MD, Hannah Keppler, MD, Emily Earl-Royal, MD MPH, Jonathan Updike, MD MPH, Xinshu She, MD, Quynh Dierickx, MD, Joseph Perales, DrPh LCSW, Lahia Yemane, MD

Evaluations are an essential part of medical training for all levels of learners, yet numerous studies show that bias is pervasive throughout evaluations of trainees across all specialties and can have longstanding implications. The effects of bias in evaluations can create differences in opportunities for advancement among different groups, such as selection into AOA, residency and fellowship programs, and leadership positions in academics. For these reasons, it is imperative that medical educators have the knowledge and skills to recognize and minimize bias in written evaluations so that we do not continue to perpetuate these disparities. This interactive workshop will teach participants how to identify potential bias in evaluations and practice how to minimize bias in their own written evaluations.

Objectives:

1. Define implicit bias and recognize how implicit bias impacts written evaluations of trainees
2. Review current best practices to minimize bias in written evaluations of trainees
3. Analyze and edit written evaluations of trainees to minimize bias

Mentoring a Movement from Diversity to Inclusion 

Alexander Ball, MD, MPH, Julia Chandler, MD, MS, Anju Goyal, MD, Rebecca Saenz, MD, PhD, Omar Sahak, MD, MPH, Ripal Shah, MD, MPH, Irene M. Loe, MD, Alexandra J. Fletcher, BA, Michelle Brooks, C-TAGME, Al'ai Alvarez, MD

Verna Myers, an advocate for diversity, once stated that, “Diversity is being invited to the party. Inclusion is being asked to dance.” In medicine’s higher institutions of learning, advances have been made towards attracting medical students and residents from diverse backgrounds, yet many will anecdotally report that the opportunity to integrate their diverse backgrounds into their budding professional identities remain scarce. As part of a larger strategy to inculcate an inclusive organizational culture, we have identified mentorship as a unique need for diverse trainees who have particular professional and personal development needs. This workshop will draw participants into a dialogue about mentoring for inclusivity in their particular fields, and identify specific mentorship strategies that can promote inclusivity at their respective institutions. It’s time for Diversity 3.0, where we take the diverse trainees we’ve drawn to our institutions and begin to weave them into our institutional fabric.

Objectives:

1. Identify the need for mentorship in building inclusion in diversity efforts
2. Strategize ways to utilize diverse backgrounds in promoting from within an institution.
3. Develop tools for participants to take back in their work against the “leaky pipeline.”

To celebrate the people and organizations promoting diversity and inclusion in the Stanford community