523 - Panel Discussions to Teach Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education and American Association of Medical Colleges have both recognized the importance of prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in medical education. In pediatric residency programs and clerkships, DEI is particularly important, as children from historically marginalized populations continue to experience health inequities. It is crucial to provide training in cultural humility to combat these disparities as well as engage residency graduates in effectively meeting the needs of a diverse patient population. Many residency programs have developed educational initiatives to promote cultural humility, however to our knowledge, no studies have assessed the efficacy of panel discussions in DEI education. Our aim is to examine panel discussions as a strategy to teach DEI to pediatric residents and medical students.

Objective:

The objective of this educational quality improvement study was to examine if panel discussions spotlighting historically marginalized groups promoted a change in resident and medical student self-perception of knowledge and confidence in caring for patients from these communities. We hypothesized that panel discussions would be an effective strategy to promote cultural humility and teach DEI.

Design/Methods:

We created three distinct panel sessions, each highlighting a historically marginalized group within our patient population: the LGBTQ+, Black, and Hispanic/Latino communities. Each session included an introductory presentation followed by a discussion with panelists from that highlighted community. Attendees of the panel sessions responded to surveys containing Likert-scale questions which assessed self-perceived knowledge, competence, and confidence in caring for patients from these communities before and after the session.

Results:

Sixteen panel attendees completed both pre- and post-surveys for the LGBTQ+ panel, eleven completed both surveys for the Black panel, and eighteen for the Hispanic/Latino panel, for a total of forty-five pairs of surveys. All five questions showed statistically significant improvement in self-perceived knowledge, competence and confidence in caring for patients from the highlighted community after the panel compared with before, each achieving a p value < 0.05.

Conclusion(s):

Our panel discussions succeeded in narrowing the knowledge gap and promoting confidence among residents and medical students in caring for historically marginalized patient populations. We suggest panel discussions can be an effective strategy to teach DEI in medical education.