Health Equity Education: Empathetic Care of Patients

Learners should understand appropriate terms, how to access resources for equitable care and cultural competency.

Resources:

• The Office of Human Resources’ Learning & Development Department, in collaboration with the Office of Equity & Inclusion, presents: “DEI Content Anytime,” via MyPath.
  • This educational content aligns with the University of Rochester’s Meliora values.
  • The newest learning opportunities highlights neurodiversity, with new modules on a variety of DEI topics to be released regularly.
  • Please follow this DEI Content Anytime playlist.

Learners should gain competence in use of interpreters, inclusive language, implicit bias awareness.

Resources:

• The UR Office of Equity and Inclusion offers a number of programs to help further the education and careers of medical center faculty, residents, fellows, students, other medical professionals and staff. For specific educational trainings, please submit a request. Or visit their website
• The UR Office of Equity and Inclusion offers trainings to help departments and individuals with issues related to equity. Here is a link to their educational offerings.

• Public Health Grand Rounds: Megan Lytle, PhD, Clinical Director of Transgender Patient Experience, URMC & Betty Webb, CHES, Health Project Coordinator, Gender Patient Support (GPS): Health & Wellness Program, URMC, presents: “Patient-Centered Care for Trans and Gender Diverse Individuals.” 

• The American Hospital Association, through their Institute for Diversity & Health Equity, provide information on practicing cultural humility and activities that improve culturally appropriate care, such as language access and health literacy: “Culturally Appropriate Patient Care.”
• HUED, and agency that measures, tracks, and trains healthcare organizations on health equity and culturally affirming care, provides various courses on empowering healthcare professionals with health equity knowledge.
  • Cultural competence and cultural humiliate set the stage for inclusive patient communication and treatment in the health setting, with research showing that caregivers demonstrating cultural competency and humility directly, impacts the health inequities faced by marginalized communities.
  • Please look at the various other courses HUED has to offer, such as “Anti-Racism,” “Social Determinants of Health,” & “Introduction to Perinatal Health Equity.”
  • Cultural Competence & Humility Course

Learners should be comfortable working in Interdisciplinary teams, community engagement, use of patient advisory groups.

Resources

• The AAMC has curated a collection of resources describing why community engagement is necessary for promoting health equity, specifically looking at the role of community engagement, communicating with community partners, and advocating for partnerships.
  • Community Engagement & Collaboration Resources
• The HANYS Health Equity Task Force created the “Culturally Appropriate Care Compendium,” to help hospitals and health systems to advance health equity and address health disparities.
  • Efforts to address racial and ethnic disparities will be effective only when the healthcare system develops cultural humility to deliver services that meet the social, cultural, and linguistic needs of patients while improving health outcomes and care quality.
  • Strong leadership, time investment, and resource allocation are critical to overall success.
• The AMA created learning modules in the AMA Ed Hub: “Partnership & Leadership for Health Equity,” which teaches leadership and partnership approaches that create a culture of authentic collaboration and community engagement.
  • Learners will understand strategies and concrete steps to build capacity for greater value and impact through collaborative leadership, cross-sector partnerships and collective action.
• ChangeLab Solutions created a “health justice framework,” a relatively new but growing approach to improving community health. Health justice adds crucial new ideas to the larger conversation on structural discrimination and health equity.
  • Explore the Framework