Cargando…

Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center

The harsh realities of racial inequities related to COVID-19 and civil unrest following police killings of unarmed Black men and women in the United States in 2020 heightened awareness of racial injustices around the world. Racism is deeply embedded in academic medicine, yet the nobility of medicine...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Wilkins, Consuelo H., Williams, Mamie, Kaur, Karampreet, DeBaun, Michael R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8542070/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34432719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004374
_version_ 1784589362621579264
author Wilkins, Consuelo H.
Williams, Mamie
Kaur, Karampreet
DeBaun, Michael R.
author_facet Wilkins, Consuelo H.
Williams, Mamie
Kaur, Karampreet
DeBaun, Michael R.
author_sort Wilkins, Consuelo H.
collection PubMed
description The harsh realities of racial inequities related to COVID-19 and civil unrest following police killings of unarmed Black men and women in the United States in 2020 heightened awareness of racial injustices around the world. Racism is deeply embedded in academic medicine, yet the nobility of medicine and nursing has helped health care professionals distance themselves from racism. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), like many U.S. academic medical centers, affirmed its commitment to racial equity in summer 2020. A Racial Equity Task Force was charged with identifying barriers to achieving racial equity at the medical center and medical school and recommending key actions to rectify long-standing racial inequities. The task force, composed of students, staff, and faculty, produced more than 60 recommendations, and its work brought to light critical areas that need to be addressed in academic medicine broadly. To dismantle structural racism, academic medicine must: (1) confront medicine’s racist past, which has embedded racial inequities in the U.S. health care system; (2) develop and require health care professionals to possess core competencies in the health impacts of structural racism; (3) recognize race as a sociocultural and political construct, and commit to debiologizing its use; (4) invest in benefits and resources for health care workers in lower-paid roles, in which racial and ethnic minorities are often overrepresented; and (5) commit to antiracism at all levels, including changing institutional policies, starting at the executive leadership level with a vision, metrics, and accountability.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8542070
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-85420702021-10-27 Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center Wilkins, Consuelo H. Williams, Mamie Kaur, Karampreet DeBaun, Michael R. Acad Med Invited Commentaries The harsh realities of racial inequities related to COVID-19 and civil unrest following police killings of unarmed Black men and women in the United States in 2020 heightened awareness of racial injustices around the world. Racism is deeply embedded in academic medicine, yet the nobility of medicine and nursing has helped health care professionals distance themselves from racism. Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), like many U.S. academic medical centers, affirmed its commitment to racial equity in summer 2020. A Racial Equity Task Force was charged with identifying barriers to achieving racial equity at the medical center and medical school and recommending key actions to rectify long-standing racial inequities. The task force, composed of students, staff, and faculty, produced more than 60 recommendations, and its work brought to light critical areas that need to be addressed in academic medicine broadly. To dismantle structural racism, academic medicine must: (1) confront medicine’s racist past, which has embedded racial inequities in the U.S. health care system; (2) develop and require health care professionals to possess core competencies in the health impacts of structural racism; (3) recognize race as a sociocultural and political construct, and commit to debiologizing its use; (4) invest in benefits and resources for health care workers in lower-paid roles, in which racial and ethnic minorities are often overrepresented; and (5) commit to antiracism at all levels, including changing institutional policies, starting at the executive leadership level with a vision, metrics, and accountability. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins 2021-08-24 2021-11 /pmc/articles/PMC8542070/ /pubmed/34432719 http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004374 Text en Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Wolters Kluwer Health, Inc. on behalf of the Association of American Medical Colleges. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives License 4.0 (CCBY-NC-ND) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) , where it is permissible to download and share the work provided it is properly cited. The work cannot be changed in any way or used commercially without permission from the journal.
spellingShingle Invited Commentaries
Wilkins, Consuelo H.
Williams, Mamie
Kaur, Karampreet
DeBaun, Michael R.
Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center
title Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center
title_full Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center
title_fullStr Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center
title_full_unstemmed Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center
title_short Academic Medicine’s Journey Toward Racial Equity Must Be Grounded in History: Recommendations for Becoming an Antiracist Academic Medical Center
title_sort academic medicine’s journey toward racial equity must be grounded in history: recommendations for becoming an antiracist academic medical center
topic Invited Commentaries
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8542070/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34432719
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/ACM.0000000000004374
work_keys_str_mv AT wilkinsconsueloh academicmedicinesjourneytowardracialequitymustbegroundedinhistoryrecommendationsforbecominganantiracistacademicmedicalcenter
AT williamsmamie academicmedicinesjourneytowardracialequitymustbegroundedinhistoryrecommendationsforbecominganantiracistacademicmedicalcenter
AT kaurkarampreet academicmedicinesjourneytowardracialequitymustbegroundedinhistoryrecommendationsforbecominganantiracistacademicmedicalcenter
AT debaunmichaelr academicmedicinesjourneytowardracialequitymustbegroundedinhistoryrecommendationsforbecominganantiracistacademicmedicalcenter