National Consortium on Multicultural Education for Health Professionals
Conference Call Minutes
Monday, February 11, 2008
12:00-1:00pm PST
Participants: David Acosta, Sylvia Bereknyei, Lynn Bickley, Clarence Braddock, Olivia Carter-Pokras, Sonia Crandall, Chris DeGannes, Kristin Fabbro, Jorge Girotti, Art Gomez, Kim Griswold, Paul Haidet, Lisa Hark, Kofi Kondwani, Liz Lee-Rey, Desiree Lie, Ana Nunez, Pam Racansky, Candace Robertson, Amen Tsegai
1) Announcements
· Art Gomez was introduced. He’ll be taking over the UCLA grant from Paula Henderson.
2) Diversity Rx
· We submitted a workshop/panel. Thanks to Olivia and all who helped! Olivia shared that we should hear back from Diversity Rx by the end of April. She did request extra workshop time.
3) F2F 2008
· The majority of poll participants (10 out of 14) will be attending Diversity Rx (Sept 21-24) in Minneapolis. Most popular time to hold F2F is around Diversity Rx. Stay tuned for more details and potential dates.
· Desiree suggested meeting on the Saturday before Diversity Rx begins (Sat, Sept 20), so as not to lose another weekday of work.
4) Meeting announcements
· AACH (American Academy on Communication in Healthcare): Annual Meeting October 17-19, in Madison, Wisconsin. For info: www.aachonline.org. Proposal deadline is March 1.
· AAMC: RIME Abstracts are due by Friday, February 22. Small group discussion proposals are due by Friday, March 28.
5) “Unnatural Causes” facilitator’s guide
· The documentary series will be airing on local PBS stations nationwide, in March and April, from 10-11pm for 4 weeks in a row. There is one 1-hour segment, and six ½-hour segments.
· A facilitator’s guide for the diabetes segment has already been prepared and shown to dental students; infant mortality segment guide is in progress. Other segment topics are the impact of immigration, stress-related health effects of losing major employer. The goal is to develop further guides as a teaching resource for facilitating conversation with health professional students after viewing the documentary.
· Olivia noted that the whole purpose of the documentary was to talk about upstream factors, and that this is good conversation for the consortium to have; i.e. how do we talk about things like diabetes in light of upstream factors rather than genetic susceptibility? It’s important to help students gain this broader perspective.
· Interested consortium members could view the documentary online and then discuss what questions we think should be asked in response, what recent (2007-2008) readings we would recommend to be posted in on the official documentary website. The group was largely enthusiastic about the idea.
· ACTION:
i. Olivia will send the group a copy of the diabetes facilitator’s guide that’s already been developed so we can get an idea of format.
ii. Kristin will send out possible 1-hour times in the next 2 weeks that Consortium members can view the documentary online (Olivia/Sylvia to work on video streaming capability) and then discuss.
iii. Facilitator’s guide needs to be done by mid-March.
6) OCR: Potential workshop pilot opportunities
· A workshop module has been developed (powerpoint plus supplementary materials) and was presented at AAMC last November. Materials are mostly in place, including case examples for Title VI violations and resources for clinicians on what to do if they encounter civil rights’ violations. The eventual goal is to publish the workshop on MedEdPORTAL as an educational resource; OCR also plans to distribute among their regional managers.
· Consortium members who are interested in piloting the workshop at your institution with students, residents, and/or faculty would receive the workshop materials as well as evaluation tools to provide feedback on the workshop.
i. Desiree thought that the workshop might be above the medical student level, and suggested Diversity Rx as a good setting for reaching policy-makers, administrators with the info. Clarence noted that the workshop is an opportunity to talk about conceptualizing the physician’s role as policy-influencer and advocate in the healthcare setting, and may be a conversation-starter for students on what physicians can do on an individual level.
ii. Interested: Kim, Jorge, Desiree (could see using in free clinics), David, Paul, Ana, Sonia, Art.
iii. David wondered if they would be able to tweak the materials to fit certain populations at their institution, i.e. transition to wards, resident orientation, mini-capstone. OCR has traditionally wanted a very specific product for their own dissemination, but it should be fine for folks to make tweaks at respective institutions at this point in the process. Just let Clarence/Sylvia know what tweaks you’re making and how they go.
· ACTION: Sylvia will send the workshop powerpoint to the consortium for people to view; think about how it would fit at their institution; and consider possibilities for implementation.
7) IATs (Implicit Association Tests)
· Baylor is doing a workshop in March for MS3s on understanding one's own assumptions/biases.
i. Sonia/Wake Forest is using IATs with PA students and next year’s med students.
ii. Olivia/UM has used as part of a counseling course in the Family Science Program at the School of Public Health at UM; 130 dental students participated also. Be aware that those taking the test may be upset about their results. The format included a lecture; one week to take the IAT; and a group discussion. Students were offered one-on-one counseling after the experience; only a handful participated. Olivia recommends being specific about instructions and which IAT test to use.
iii. Liz/Einstein has used IATs as part of a Health Disparities and Healthcare session in 3rd year clerkship. Students (about ¾ of the class participated) were surprised with their results, and blamed the “system” or the IAT rather than themselves. Some students took the IAT multiple times until they got “better” results.
iv. Liz/Einstein’s format: Students wrote a paper where they noted biased, discriminate, or stereotypic behaviors that impeded patient care. Students then took the IAT and discussed the results in groups (trusted). Faculty also took the IAT. All were given the Alex Green article as concurrent reading. Facilitators used prompts to guide student discussion. Both students and faculty questioned the validity of the test results.
· The group discussed the possibility of formally collating the experiences of Consortium members as a “lessons learned” product (i.e. paper, or small group proposal) to aid other administrations in using the IAT in various iterations.
i. Olivia previously submitted an on-campus proposal to foster cross-disciplinary communication, but the response was that another study population who would benefit from IAT was needed.
ii. Sonia mentioned that there are “short” versions of the IAT. Preliminary data suggests easier usability, which might enhance student participation and feasibility of implementation
· ACTION:
i. Olivia will re-send the proposal to the Consortium to determine if there is merit/interest in a multi-site proposal.
ii. Sonia will send the group a link to the short version of the IAT when it becomes available (keep within group).
iii. Anyone who has used IATs before, please send your facilitator’s guides/questions to Paul. UM has presented to the students that self reflection is part of becoming more culturally competent.
iv. Potential for small-group discussion proposal for AAMC (would be due March 28). Paul, Olivia, Sonia, Ana, and Lynn expressed interest.
8) “Measures of Success” update
· Olivia and Sylvia have written up a 21-item survey form to discuss with the Consortium regarding “Measures of Success”. Each institution and PI will be asked to fill out a survey form online, to be followed up by an over-the-phone interview with Sylvia and/or Olivia.
· ACTION: Sylvia will send out the survey by email today. Please fill out and return by end of the week (Feb 15th)!
9) Upcoming conference call times:
· Second Monday of the month from 12:00pm-1:00pm PST (3-4pm EST)
i. March 10th
ii. April 14th
iii. May 12th