Lessons learned from implementing a diversity, equity, and inclusion curriculum for health research professionals at a large academic research institution

Interprofessional Debrief on Racism, Equity, and Microaggressions (I-DREAM): Using Simulation to Change Awareness, Attitudes, and Abilities Across an Institution

PURPOSE

Effective diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) education is imperative to combat bias across health care organizations. The authors evaluated the effectiveness of interprofessional, simulation-based DEI training in improving clinicians' awareness, attitudes, and abilities regarding bias, racism, inclusion, microaggressions, and equity in the workforce.

METHOD

From October 2021 to June 2022, interprofessional clinicians at Children's National Hospital in Washington, DC, completed the Interprofessional Debrief on Racism, Equity, and Microaggressions (I-DREAM) training. Participants underwent small group training that included debriefing prerecorded simulations depicting language barriers, microaggressions, and other biased interactions. They were offered optional surveys before training, after training, and at 3-month follow-up. Participants' awareness and attitudes of the events were assessed. Additional data were collected from monthly use of telephone interpreter services.

RESULTS

A total of 1,811 interprofessional participants completed the I-DREAM training. Through user-generated codes, 759 presurveys and postsurveys and 276 presurveys and 3-month follow-up surveys were linked. Among these participants, 451 (60%) witnessed bias events before training and 629 (83%) after training (odds ratio [OR], 9.37; 95% CI, 5.77-15.22; P < .001), and 278 (37%) reported personally experiencing these events before training vs 496 (66%) after training (OR, 7.86; 95% CI, 5.45-11.33; P < .001). Participants reporting confidence responding to bias events increased from 388 (45%) to 556 (73%) (OR, 3.28; 95% CI, 2.52-4.27; P < .001). At 3 months, 199 participants (72%) continued to express confidence in responding (OR, 3.98; 95% CI, 2.56-6.18; P < .001). Use of language interpretation increased during training (mean difference in calls per month, 261; 95% CI, 124-398; P < .001; mean difference in minutes per month, 2,249; 95% CI, 616-3,882; P = .009).

CONCLUSIONS

I-DREAM training was associated with improved clinicians' awareness of bias events in the workplace, confidence in ability to respond to these events, and delivery of language-equitable care.

From dialogue to action: Assessing best practices and actionable steps for oral health professions education clinical and learning environments

The American Dental Education Association (ADEA) embarked upon a path to broadly assess the clinical and learning environments across dental school and allied oral health programs. Assessing clinical learning environments has provided an important opportunity for gaining feedback from learners and team members about their experiences, responding to their needs on an intentional basis and forming context-specific understanding of and evidence for the impact of curriculum, pedagogical, and even patient care practices. This article presents key highlights of the overall usefulness of climate studies across higher education, corporate environments and health professions education. Moving from dialogue to action, it presents clear recommendations for moving forward and maximizing change efforts toward optimally inclusive, equitable, and ethically-centered oral health professions education clinical and learning environments.