Abstract Details

Title Attitudes, Beliefs and Experiences of an Academic Neurology Department Regarding Systemic Racism: University of Kentucky Neurology Residency Study

Topic Health Care Disparities

Presentation(s) P18 - Poster Session 18 (5:30 PM-6:30 PM)

Poster/Presentation
Number 11-001

Background The neurology residency program at the University of Kentucky is committed to promoting equity, diversity, inclusion, and anti-racism culture within the program and the community. As such, an anti-racism and social justice curriculum was implemented with the aim to equip future neurologists – our residents and trainees – as well as faculty and staff with the skills, knowledge, and passion to deliver equitable healthcare to all patients, while also honoring and valuing the diversity of colleagues.

Objective The aim is to study attitudes, beliefs,and experiences of neurology residents,medical students,faculty, and staff regarding systemic racism before and after discussing one of the pre-selected articles,“Diagnosing and Treating Systemic Racism’’ by Evans et al.

Design/Methods The sessions are one-hour long, monthly journal club didactic seminars. Each month, an article examining diversity,inclusion,antiracism,or social justice in medicine is dissected. A resident and faculty member co-facilitate the review. This is followed by open discourse among all participants. Anonymous pre- and post-discussion surveys were sent to the entire department; responses were subsequently analyzed.

Results The participants’ data on gender, race, and ethnicity from pre- and post-discussion surveys are consistent. Fifty-one percent witnessed discrimination of patients because of their race at the medical facility, and 60% witnessed discrimination of medical students, residents, fellows, or faculty at the medical facility because of their race. 28.9% admitted to experiencing racial discrimination from patients. 92.9% found the discussion informative. Some of the participants’ free-response goals after the discussion were to consciously consider personal bias when treating patients of other races and taking extra care to gain patient trust.

Conclusions The results of this project emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion curricula in residency programs, as they serve to enhance the understanding of issues pertaining to racism in medicine,and its effect on the quality of service provision to patients of different races and ethnic groups

Authors/Disclosures
Thien Nguyen, MD PRESENTER	Dr. Nguyen has nothing to disclose.
Khawla M. Abusamra, MBBS	Dr. Abusamra has nothing to disclose.
Timothy J. Ainger, PhD (University of Kentucky College of Medicine, Dept. of Neurology)	Dr. Ainger has nothing to disclose.
Ima M. Ebong, MD (University of Kentucky)	The institution of Dr. Ebong has received personal compensation in the range of $500-$4,999 for serving as a Consultant for UCB.