Committed to Advancing DEI Efforts
Jennifer Lawrence Hanscom
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) at Washington State Medical Association
At the risk of divulging my age, as a kid I loved that song “Come and Get Your Love.” I learned this week that the band made famous by the tune, Redbone, was all-Native and Mexican American and the first to have made the?Billboard?top 10 (learning things like this is one of the benefits of a long commute listening to NPR KUOW Public Radio ).
?“Come and Get Your Love” was on the same album as “We Were All Wounded at Wounded Knee," a song written by a member of the band in response to a group of Native activists who?occupied the town ?of Wounded Knee in South Dakota, the same site where hundreds of Lakota?had been massacred ?by U.S. soldiers. According to NPR, “the song became a hit in Europe, but CBS refused to release it in the U.S., fearing it was too controversial.”
Fear of controversy can often stymie growth and change. While there has been growth in diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts since 2020, more recently there have been changes underfoot to tamp down or halt such efforts. There’s a Harvard Business Review article about why people resist social change efforts titled "To Overcome Resistance to DEI, Understand What’s Driving It ." If you haven’t read it, I recommend it.
Regardless of the shift underway to pull back from addressing DEI, the WSMA remains undeterred in its efforts. Echoing our national medical society and health care organization partners that have recently called for renewed support of DEI efforts in medicine, the WSMA is steadfast in its commitment to building health equity and eliminating well-documented disparities to improve patient care here in Washington. That work must be done at all levels, from the individual to the institutional, during medical education and training and in medical practice.
?As leaders in medical education, medical professionalism, and patient care, we are proud to stand with those who have identified the need to mitigate the harm of racism perpetuated throughout medicine, and we are proud to support efforts taking place in our state and throughout the country to help diversify the health care workforce and train health care professionals to provide culturally sensitive care .
?This is the work we must do to accomplish equitable health outcomes for every Washingtonian. Only through these efforts will we realize our vision to make Washington state the best place to practice medicine and receive care.
?At the Washington State Medical Association (WSMA) and WSMA Foundation, examples of our work in this space include:
?Health Equity M&M Webinar Series
Free for WSMA members and offering CME credit, this webinar series is held on the second Friday of even-numbered months at noon. What to expect: Think “morbidity and mortality,” but with a focus on health equity.
If you haven’t yet jumped into these ongoing discussions, I highly recommend you do so. They are rich, often challenging conversations that provide a framework for recognizing and examining our own biases and identifying the ways systemic racism exists in our organizations. You’ll walk away with new tools to think critically and identify when to advocate for your patients from historically marginalized communities, ensuring they receive the highest quality clinical care. The Health Equity M&M discussions serve as one of many mechanisms to address forms of systemic marginalization of patients. During each webinar, Edwin Lindo, JD, WSMA’s health equity advisor, facilitates case-based discussions. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit?.
?Health Equity in Medicine Podcast
This is WSMA’s soon-to-launch, two-hour CME podcast that fulfills the new Washington state requirement of two hours in health equity continuing education at least once every four years. In the four-part podcast, which will be free for WSMA members, Lindo covers the history of racism in medicine and the impacts of the medical profession on health equity. He shares how some of your colleagues have tackled these thorny issues, structurally and individually, and provides ideas on how to incorporate equity principles into practice.
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Each episode is about 30 minutes long, with the entire four-part program totaling two hours (meeting the new state CME requirement).
We expect the podcast to be available in the next week or two. Nonmember pricing will be available. Check in on the Health Equity in Medicine Podcast webpage for details on availability. This activity has been approved for AMA PRA Category 1 Credit?.
?Best Practices for Culturally Sensitive Care
Building and maintaining trustworthy relationships with your patients is critical to delivering equitable and culturally sensitive care. The WSMA and the WSMA Foundation have developed the following guidance for delivering culturally sensitive care:
You may also find these guidance documents on our Inclusive Language and Health Equity Resources webpage, where you’ll also find a wealth of information on building trust with your patients from diverse communities, including terms, definitions, tools, templates, and links to research and further reading.
?WSMA Foundation Scholarship and Diversity Advancement Fund
Believing that physician and patient racial concordance contributes to a more effective therapeutic relationship and improved health care, the WSMA Foundation has launched a new endowment to build a more diverse physician population in Washington state. Studies show that when the physician is the same race as the patient, patients report higher levels of trust and satisfaction and demonstrate greater treatment compliance. At the same time, medical students trained at diverse schools are more comfortable treating patients from a wide range of racial and ethnic backgrounds.?Our goal with the Scholarship and Diversity Advancement Fund is to cover full in-state tuition for four years of medical school for the scholarship recipient. We plan to raise $2 million to award the first scholarship, with our ultimate fundraising goal of $5 million to award three scholarships (one for each of Washington’s medical schools). Read more about our Scholarship and Diversity Advancement Fund and make a donation today.
?“Come and Get Your Love” is not just a catchy tune, it’s also about being inclusive. As Pat Vegas from Redbone told NPR , “It's love all around … In other words, where you come from and who you are doesn't matter as much as what you believe and what you feel." At the WSMA, we believe in advancing equitable care for all patients. Embracing diversity and inclusion in medicine and health care will get us there.
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