The Residency Program’s Commitment to Diversity, Inclusion, and Social Justice
Creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all can thrive is a priority for our residency and department. It is also a priority of our graduate medical education community, school, and healthcare system. We know that excellence and innovation depend on collaboration among individuals with the broadest possible perspectives, backgrounds, and experiences. Within healthcare, delivering the highest quality education, training, and patient care requires true diversity among the teachers, students, and healthcare providers.
Our residency strives to recruit a diverse class of residents. We have taken advantage of training, recommendations, and opportunities provided by the institution’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion to help us be successful in this goal. Important in this mission is recruiting and retaining a diverse faculty to serve as educators and mentors. This is a priority of our department leadership and is supported by institutional programs. While we have made progress in our goal to increase the diversity within our residency, we continously look for new ways to improve.
Recent events in our country have emphasized for all of us that social injustice and racism continue to impact our country and its citizens. Within our community at UAB and within our anesthesiology department and residency we continue to work to address this critical challenge. Residency leaders, both faculty and trainees, have participated in anti-racism workshops and education to provide a broader understanding of the issue and to develop effective responses. A quote from Dean Selwyn Vickers to our community says it best: “Academic medicine must recommit to the idea that every part of our society benefits when every part of our society is operating at its highest capacity—or in the words of Eleanor Roosevelt, ‘When it’s better for everyone, it’s better for everyone.’ Racial equality lifts the boat not only for minorities but also for the majority population. But to achieve this, we must first be highly intentional . . . about confronting racism until being anti-racist becomes second nature.”
Going forward we plan to provide additional anti-racism education for all residents and faculty, continue our efforts to recruit and retain a diverse team, ensure we provide opportunities for listening and engagement by all members of our program, and launch a leadership track for underrepresented in medicine minority residents.
While we are confident that UAB is truly an environment that is diverse and inclusive and that our residency community is one that is supportive of all its members, we also realize that there is room to grow. We are committed to exploring and taking advantage of all opportunities to ensure continued progress.