The Curricular Affairs Sphere aims to promote personal growth in antiracist knowledge and skills among course and clerkship directors. We developed this change target in partnership with students and faculty.
The first steps included conducting focus groups and structured surveys of course and clerkship directors. This process helped us identify existing strengths and areas for growth as well as opportunities for and barriers to growth in antiracist knowledge and skills.
We then began to work systematically with course and clerkship directors to help meet immediate needs while also gathering data on barriers to growth. So far, efforts have included:
The Art and Science of Medicine (ASM)
- Extensive anti-racist curricula exist, and will be expanded and used as a framework for approach to racism as the driver of racial inequities explored in other courses.
- Anti-racist and anti-oppressive small group facilitation faculty developments
Brain and Behavior
- Additional content: history of racism in psychiatry, racism as driver of racial inequities in serious mental illness, cerebrovascular accidents (incidence and outcomes) and dementia
- Additional didactic and small group discussion on racism in psychiatry
- Inclusion of content on summative exam
- Faculty developments on anti-racism content
- Faculty developments on anti-oppressive facilitation techniques
Muscoskeletal (MSK)
- Meetings with course director and faculty underway, with additional content and faculty developments being planned
Internal Medicine Clerkship
- Divisional grand rounds being developed
- Meetings with clerkship director under way
Pediatric Clerkship
- Anti-racist trainings initiated with all Pediatric Hospital Medicine faculty and fellows and Adolescent Medicine faculty and fellows including introduction to White Supremacy Culture and antiracist bedside skills.
For more information about the on-going focused work within the spheres, check out the Change Targets tracker and our latest release of the RBI January 2021 Action Update.