Emergency Medicine

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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.