Department of Social Medicine

Continue discussions within Social Medicine on long-term strategies to address structural inequities and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Department and throughout the UNC School of Medicine.

The Department held a department-wide DEI strategic planning meeting on 8/19/2020 with facilitation by Dr Nate Thomas. Based on notes from that meeting a qualtrics survey was sent out to establish DEI goals and priorities for the Department. Results from the survey and these goals and priorities were summarized in a brief internal report.

The Department is now working on two goals established via our strategic planning process. First, we are writing a department DEI mission/values statement to guide us in our DEI activities. Second, we are establishing guidelines for recruitment and hiring of administrative staff, research staff, students, and faculty to promote Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. We expect completion of these items by Summer 2021.

Person/Dept Responsible:

Have all faculty, staff, and post-doctoral scholars in the Department of Social Medicine complete at least one training in diversity, equity, and inclusion within the next 12 months.

The department hosted a BIAS 101 training on January 6, 2021 for all faculty and staff. Attendance was recorded by SOM OIE. Additionally, several faculty and staff have participated in either Unconscious Bias training, REI 2-day training, and Safe Zone training. All DEI Committee members have participated in Unconscious Bias training. The Department’s DEI chair has also completed all courses required for the DEI Certificate Program.

Person/Dept Responsible:

Expand inclusion of content on racism and social justice in courses on social and health systems taught to medical students by Social Medicine faculty

Faculty teaching SHS1 and SHS2 meet weekly to discuss social justice content in these courses. The courses offer over 30 sessions which teach medical students to think about social justice and ethnic in the delivery of medical care.

Dr. Raul Necochea has been serving on the SOM Social Justice Task Force to help guide curricular changes in the social justice content of the SOM curriculum.

Dr. Sue Estroff is participating in the Social Medicine Consortium (social-medicine-movement@googlegroups.com), a national discussion group regarding social justice and equity content in medical education. Useful suggestions and ideas are shared with SHS1 and SHS2 instructors.

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