Time’s Up Healthcare

Columbia University College of Dental Medicine (CDM) joined Time’s Up Healthcare, a national initiative that engages health professions schools and institutions in the push toward equitable and dignified employment. The initiative is a new affiliate of Time’s Up, launched in early 2019, to heal a broken system by targeting work culture issues. In becoming a signatory, CDM has embraced the core convictions of Time’s Up Healthcare, tenets that focus on prevention of gender-based inequities and alignment with the belief that gender discrimination has no place in health professions. 

Health Equity, Social Justice, and Anti-Racism

Health Equity, Social Justice, and Anti-Racism (HESJAR) is a four-year curricular thread at the University of California, Riverside School of Medicine. The goal of HESJAR is to teach students how to increase health equity, advance health-related social justice, and more. Participants develop skills in identifying and addressing inequities within systems, cultures, and structures. They also learn how to better understand, communicate with, and advocate for patients, families, and colleagues of diverse intersectional backgrounds. The curriculum includes conversations in which community members share their experiences and stories to encourage change in health care and challenge discriminatory attitudes.

Louisville Youth Voices Against Violence Fellowship

The Louisville Youth Voices Against Violence Fellowship (LYVV) at the University of Louisville Health Sciences Center equips young people to be change agents against racism and other structural inequities that marginalize their lived experiences and perpetuate legacies of violence. LYVV fellows between the ages of 16 to 24 learn from and lead activities that promote racial identity, leadership, critical consciousness, and professional development at personal, community, and institutional levels. They are encouraged to spark change by working with legislators and other leaders as well as by participating in street activism. Fellows have created Black Student Unions, served as community-based violence prevention researchers, and more.

Anti-Racism Oversight Committee

The University of Michigan Medical School’s Anti-Racism Oversight Committee (AROC) was formed in June 2020 in response to student concerns and national unrest. Faculty, staff, and learners were surveyed on how best to eliminate racism and inequities that may exist at the medical school. After 1,000 responses were reviewed, a plan was developed to engage the community in education, implementation, and action to eliminate racism. AROC is charged with creating sustainable culture change in multiple areas. These include advocacy and professional development, education and clinical practice, workforce diversity, and more.

Advocating for Asian American and Pacific Islander Rights

Leaders of the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Student Nurses affinity group at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing worked with their faculty adviser to create recommendations for combating anti-Asian bias and supporting AAPI health professionals. These recommendations were developed into an article that was published in the clinical journal Women’s Healthcare and reflects the essential conversation in the U.S. surrounding discrimination and mistreatment of the AAPI community. The group has also organized campus discussions that allow them to use their personal experiences to give voice to AAPI patients and increase awareness of the health disparities unique to these populations.●

This article was published in our December 2021 issue.

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