By: Kamilah Weems (@KamilahWeems) and Dorothy Andriole (@AndrioleDorothy)
The big picture: Why should we as educators consider competencies in Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)?
Medical schools seek to recruit diverse classes of talented medical students in a holistic fashion and educate them to improve the health of their patients and the communities they serve. For learners to be educated to meet these aims throughout medical school – and in graduate medical education and beyond – faculty and educators need to have the skills and knowledge of all factors that affect health. As science advances and we understand more about what impacts health, educators and learners together can work to address and mitigate the factors that drive racism and bias in healthcare, supporting the continued development of a physician workforce that is culturally responsive and trained to address these issues.
Where do I start in developing DEI Competencies?
The good news is that you don’t have to start from scratch …. A cross-continuum set of DEI competencies is already available for you to use, freely share and adapt to your educational setting.
When (and how) did that happen?
In 2019, the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) convened a cross-continuum Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Advisory Committee to develop a set of diversity, equity and inclusion competencies across the learning continuum. Over the ensuing three years, working largely virtually through the early years of the COVID-19 pandemic, this Committee created and refined the initial DEI competencies draft and widely distributed it in November 2020 through March 2021 for external feedback and proposed revisions; the revised draft, based on this initial round of external feedback was then widely distributed for a second round of external feedback and proposed revisions, with the final (“version 1.0”) set of DEI competencies, with a pre-publication release of the finalized set of competencies in November 2021 and a full report, including the final set of competencies along with a description of the development process and curricular models for integrating and improving DEI in medical education, released in July, 2022.
How can I access the DEI competencies?
A report describing the process of developing the DEI competencies, and the full set of DEI competencies across the learning continuum is available (open access and free to download ) at Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Competencies Across the Learning Continuum.
How are the DEI competencies organized?
The competencies are organized within each of the three domains (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) and are defined for each of three “tiers” across the learning continuum: the first tier generally for those completing medical school and entering residency training, the second tier for those completing graduated medical education and entering practice and the third tier for faculty teachers and leaders.
How could I initially use the DEI competencies?
You might consider using the DEI competencies to…
- Engage other health care professional colleagues in collaborative DEI discussions, including your cross-continuum and cross-discipline colleagues.
- Conduct gap analyses of your local curricula and training programs.
- Self-assess “where you are” and plan for your own continued individual professional development.
Are there any caveats in using the DEI competencies?
Yes! Keep in mind that competencies always need local context, framing and modification. The AAMC DEI competencies are no exception – rather, these are probably particularly important and relevant considerations for DEI competencies.
How can I learn more about using the DEI competencies in competency-based education?
Developing a set of competencies is only one element of Competency Based Medical Education (CBME) implementation.1 To learn more about work being done by others in implementing DEI competencies, consider viewing the September 2022 Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Competencies Across the Learning Continuum webinar (registration is required for access, but it’s free, fast and easy to do). This webinar, part of the IDEAs (Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-racism) Learning Series,2 includes a brief review of the AAMC DEI competencies followed by a panel discussion among experts on common challenges and exemplary curricula in competency-based education as it relates to diversity, equity, inclusion and anti-racism.
Are there any barriers I should anticipate as I get started in my educational setting?
In a recent survey on the prevalence and integration of DEI and antiracism in undergraduate medical education curricula (New, Emerging and Evolving Demands (NEEDs) in Medical Education Survey (PDF), few schools identified lack or institutional support as a barrier, but many schools identified lack of experienced faculty or clinicians as a major barrier to expanding DEI and antiracism education.3
What’s next for the DEI competencies?
There are resources and tools available to support implementation of these DEI competencies at MedEdPORTAL, The Journal of Teaching and Learning Resources (an open access journal). Take a look at MedEdPORTAL’s Anti-racism Education Collection and its Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Collection.
The AAMC will soon release a compendium of materials that support an anti-racist, anti-discrimination, inclusive, and equity-centered learning environment. The collection will feature clinical experiences, workshops, lectures, educational frameworks, guidelines, assessment tools, checklists, and more, with all resources organized by the competency domains described in the AAMC DEI competencies. To learn more about this collection and how you or your colleagues can contribute resources that have been developed in your educational setting, visit Advancing Equity in Learning Collection
About the authors:
Kamilah D. Weems, MS is the Director of Strategic Initiatives and Partnerships within Academic Affairs at the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), Washington DC. She led the development of the DEI cross-continuum competencies alongside an expert workgroup and co-leads an initiative within the AAMC’s Strategic Plan to create a more equitable, inclusive, and anti-racist learning environment. Kamilah leads several other initiatives on telehealth education and mitigating health care misinformation to transform medical education.
Dorothy A. Andriole, MD, FACS is Senior Director for Medical Education Research, Academic Affairs at the Association of American Medical Colleges, Washington DC. She leads Action Plan 1 (“Strengthen the Medical Education Continuum for Transformed Health Care and Learning Environments”) of the AAMC’s Strategic Plan (https://www.aamc.org/about-us/strategic-plan/healthier-future-all-aamc-strategic-plan ). The work of Action Plan 1 builds on the AAMC’ s history of fostering innovation in CBME to better align educational outcomes across medical schools and their clinical partners and across the medical education continuum to improve patient-level and system-level outcomes.
References:
- Van Melle E, Frank JR, Holmboe ES, Dagnone D, Stockley D, Sherbino J; International Competency-Based Medical Education Collaborators. A Core Components Framework for Evaluating Implementation of Competency-Based Medical Education Programs. Acad Med. 2019 Jul;94(7):1002-1009. doi:10.1097/ACM.0000000000002743. PMID: 30973365.
- Association of American Medical Colleges. IDEAs Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Anti-racism Learning Series. Available at https://cloud.email.aamc.org/ideas . Accessed November 28, 3023.
- Grbic D, Weems K, Howley L. AAMC Data Snapshot. Prevalence and Integration of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Anti- racism (DEI+AR) in the Undergraduate Medical Education Curriculum. September 2022. Available at https://www.aamc.org/media/62656/download?attachment Accessed November 28, 2023.
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