COM implements Justice Initiative to fight racism in medicine

Posted on September 9, 2020 by Carol McPhail

Medical students, residents and faculty gather for a WhiteCoats4BlackLives event at USA Health.

The Office of Diversity and Inclusion at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine was tasked with identifying and addressing areas for improvement in the culture and climate of both the USA College of Medicine and USA Health.

The Justice Initiative Survey – which was distributed to USA College of Medicine medical and graduate students, faculty and staff via their USA email – was conducted by the USA Office of Institutional Effectiveness and closed on Aug. 28. The information collected from the survey will be used to develop plans that will become improvement goals for the College of Medicine and will be tracked by the Continuous Quality Improvement Committee (CQI).

“Everyone has a voice,” said Franklin Trimm, M.D., associate dean for diversity and inclusion at the USA College of Medicine and assistant vice president for medical affairs at USA Health. “The goal of this survey is to hear the voices of all members of the COM community and listen to what those voices are telling us we can do better.”

The survey will help assess how the USA College of Medicine is doing on a variety of themes that focus on racial justice.

The 14 areas of focus are:

1. Underrepresented minority student representation

2. Underrepresented minority faculty representation

3. Underrepresented minority recognition

4. Underrepresented minority recruitment

5. Anti-racist training and curriculum

6. Discrimination reporting

7. Underrepresented minority grade disparity

8. Underrepresented minority support/resources

9. Campus policing

10. Marginalized patient population

11. Equal access for all patients

12. Immigrant patient protection

13. Staff compensation and insurance

14. Anti-racist IRB policies

“The next step is to issue a call for student volunteers,” Trimm added. “The volunteer groups need to be a diverse representation of graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and all four years of medical students. These students will be responsible for reviewing the data collected by the survey and making recommendations on how to move forward.”

Once the recommendations are prioritized, they will become part of the CQI plan for the College of Medicine and will be tracked by our CQI committee to make sure the conversation continues.

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