Diversity and Inclusion efforts at the LSU Internal Medicine Residency in Baton Rouge

 

At LSUHSC, we are taking steps to transform the institution into a culture where racial bias and inequity has no place. Diversity among leadership, faculty, staff and learners enriches the educational experience for all learners and enables us to better address healthcare inequities and cultural competency in clinical care. The diverse community and patient population that LSUHSC serves fosters trainees' understanding and effective delivery of care to individuals of diverse backgrounds, which is integral to the institution's academic mission. As an inclusive community, LSUHSC embraces the full range of human difference: race, gender, ethnicity, age, culture, national origins, religious belief, physical ability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socioeconomic class, and political convictions.

To demonstrate LSU's commitment to diversity and inclusion as core institutional values, a Vice Chancellor for Diversity and Inclusion will be charged with promoting inclusion and diversity in research, education, patient care and community service by creating programs for successful recruitment of retention of faculty, staff and students from diverse and under-represented communities.

Specifically, the School of Medicine's Office of Diversity and Community Engagement has started a series to develop awareness, literacy and acknowledgement of the structural frameworks which intersect in the space of race, health care inequities, and disparities.

LSUHSC New Orleans welcomes needs and celebrates its diverse voices. Our training program is our present and future, and serves a beautifully diverse community. We are committed to an inclusive, vibrant training experience, and to learning how to care more completely for each other and our patients.

Aligning with the diversity statement of our Health Sciences Center, the faculty and residents of the Internal Medicine Residency Program in Baton Rouge are taking steps to put these goals into action by pursing initiatives that advance the program’s emphasis on topics relating to Diversity, Inclusion and Equity (DEI) while also engaging in our local community to meet the needs of the diverse population that we serve. This program’s Diversity, Health Equity and Diversity Curriculum workgroup integrates topics key to understanding issues related to diversity, health care disparities and social determinants of health (SDoH) into its existing didactic structure. Additionally, interested residents have the opportunity to further engage with our current Social Determinants of Health Community Outreach initiative incorporated into their ambulatory block. By instituting these changes, we aim to prepare resident physicians to meet the needs of a diverse population by providing strong clinical training while also forming culturally competent doctors who are equipped to address the unique needs of the population they serve. With increased resident awareness and knowledge, we hope to empower them to modify their practice patterns and become a “physician advocate” to dampen the effects of these inequities and improve health outcomes. In addition to curricular modifications, some of our other efforts include:

Alliance of Independent Academic Medical Centers, National Initiative 8—Justice, Equity, Inclusion and Diversity (JEDI): In conjunction with Our Lady of the Lake Hospital’s Academic Affairs Office, this program leverages current interprofessional M&Ms from the Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency Programs to launch quarterly Equity Rounds to examine clinical cases through the lenses of JEDI. This series focuses on anti-bias in healthcare training and its impact on care delivery. Each session is hosted by one of the residency programs of the Baton Rouge Branch Campus and integrates coaching/faculty development experience for those residents and faculty that will be facilitating these Equity Rounds which are also shared via stream with the entire organization.

Social Determinants of Health EPIC program: One of the goals of incorporating DEI education into our didactic training is to enhance patient-physician communication by teaching trainees to recognize Social Determinants of Health (SDoH) and understand when issues are impacting their patient’s care. Our health system has undertaken a two-step method (first by the nurse then by the doctor) of screening patient for potential barriers to their health caused by SDoH via the electronic medical record. By providing residents with pragmatic training on screening for SDoH in the ambulatory and inpatient settings, they are able to empathetically identify and discuss these barriers with patients while also connecting them to appropriate resources that help to mitigate their effects.