Diversity Council

The UMMC Department of Emergency Medicine has established a diversity council to cultivate an environment that recognizes and values diversity and inclusion.

The council's objectives include:

• Providing education and programming that will increase awareness of diversity and inclusion; 
• Creating support for an inclusive environment that is welcoming of all students, residents, faculty, staff and patients; 
• Increasing the visibility of diversity and inclusion in the department; and 
• Developing strategies to recruit and retain underrepresented residents and faculty.

The council's strategies include:

• Creating a departmental policy that emphasizes the department’s commitment to diversity;
• Working with UMMC's chief diversity officer to promote the visibility of diversity efforts; 
• Adopting a comprehensive plan for creating a welcoming and supportive training environment for underrepresented residents, students, nurses, faculty, and staff; 
• Implementing formal and informal curricular programs that promote discussions and activities about diversity and inclusivity; including:
  • Providing voluntary diversity training for all faculty, residents, nurses, and staff, including training on conscious (explicit) and unconscious (implicit) bias; 
  • Utilizing interprofessional team based learning exercises to demonstrate how to be respectful of the experiences and backgrounds of other team members and patients;
  • Working with the education faculty to make diversity an integral part of the medical student and resident curriculum;
• Advocating for changes in programs, policies, and practices to eliminate health care disparities; and
• Encouraging and supporting research aimed at reducing health care disparities.