Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities

Don't miss this important article published in the Oct 2019 issue of the Journal of Graduate Medical Education:

Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities

Lisa M. Meeks, Neera R. Jain, Christopher Moreland, Nichole Taylor, Jason C. Brookman, and Michael Fitzsimons (2019) Realizing a Diverse and Inclusive Workforce: Equal Access for Residents With Disabilities. Journal of Graduate Medical Education: October 2019, Vol. 11, No. 5, pp. 498-503.

National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being

Earlier this month, Weill Cornell Medicine, in partnership with the Association of American Medical Colleges, Associated Medical Schools of New York, and American Foundation for Suicide Prevention, hosted the National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being.

Medical students experience higher rates of psychological distress, including anxiety, depression, and suicidal ideation, compared to peers in the general population.  While much needed attention is currently being focused on clinician well-being within the medical community, it is time to concentrate more fully on medical students as well.

The National Conference on Medical Student Mental Health and Well-Being is the first comprehensive, multidisciplinary forum to examine the mental health needs of medical students.  Bringing together leading experts in the field, medical school administrators and faculty, mental health professionals, and medical students, it seeks to better understand the causes of psychological distress in this population.  Key goals are to identify new and improved strategies for detection, treatment, and prevention of mental illness in medical students, as well as innovative methods for fostering greater resilience and well-being, that can be implemented at medical schools around the country.

UK’s General Medical Council: Welcomed and Valued

The UK’s General Medical Council (GMC) has recently launched a podcast series dedicated to disability in medicine. It's called Able medics and it came about as the GMC spoke with medical students and doctors with disabilities to develop its guidance document called "Welcomed and valued."

The "Welcomed and valued" guidance is advisory, to help organisations consider how best to support medical students and doctors in training. The guidance refers to statutory requirements for medical schools and organisations involved in postgraduate training, and provides practical suggestions for organisations to consider.

The guidance is split into the following six sections:

1. Welcomed and valued: Health and disability in medicine
2. Welcomed and valued: Our involvement as a professional regulator
3. Welcomed and valued: What is expected of medical education organisations and employers?
4. Welcomed and valued: How can medical schools apply their duties?
5. Welcomed and valued: Transition from medical school to Foundation training
6. Welcomed and valued: How can postgraduate educators apply their duties?

Learn more about "Welcomed and valued."

Access the "Able medics" podcast series.

NPR stories: doctors with disabilities

In 2018, NPR published several stories about doctors with disabilities:

Doctors With Disabilities Look For Recognition

For Aspiring Doctors With Disabilities, Many Medical Schools Come Up Short

Doctors With Disabilities Push For Culture Change In Medicine


Last month (2019), NPR released the following article:

What Medicine Can Learn From Doctors And Researchers With Disabilities

Deaf Professionals in Medicine: Designated Interpreters

Don't miss this recent article by Hall, Elliott, and Cullen titled, "Designated Interpreters: A Model to Promote the Diversity and Inclusion of Deaf Professionals in Academic Medicine."

Abstract
PROBLEM:
Deaf professionals who use American Sign Language (ASL) are a growing population in academic medicine. Reasonable accommodations for this group include providing an ASL interpreter. Many institutions contract with external agencies to provide ad hoc interpreters, but this model has hidden costs for deaf professionals and institutions.

APPROACH:
The University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry (URSMD) uses the designated interpreter model in which interpreters are on staff and embedded with deaf professionals so they can learn both the work environment and the deaf professionals' specialized science and medicine content. This model addresses many of the limitations of the external agency approach and better facilitates the inclusion of deaf professionals in the institution.

OUTCOMES:
This model has been in use at URSMD since 1990 but has seen exponential growth recently (increasing from 3 deaf professionals with designated interpreters in 2011 to a peak of 17 in 2016). Designated interpreters have worked in different research and clinical settings from dentistry and nursing to community and global health. This growth highlights the increasing number of deaf professionals in medicine and the need to train more designated interpreters.

NEXT STEPS:
In response to this growing demand, URSMD is developing an ASL Interpreting in Medicine and Science program, a master's degree-level program to train interpreters who are bilingual in ASL and English to be designated interpreters. The designated interpreter model is one step toward creating an environment that is fully inclusive of deaf professionals to the benefit of the whole institution.


Hall WC, Elliott M, Cullen JP. Designated Interpreters: A Model to Promote the Diversity and Inclusion of Deaf Professionals in Academic Medicine. Acad Med. 2019 May;94(5):697-700. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000002570. PubMed PMID: 30640264; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC6483825.

W.C. Hall is research assistant professor, Departments of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Pediatrics, and Public Health Sciences, and Clinical & Translational Science Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.

M. Elliott is American Sign Language interpreter, Clinical & Translational Science Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York.

J.P. Cullen is research associate professor and director of diversity and inclusion, Clinical & Translational Science Institute, University of Rochester Medical Center, and assistant director, Susan B. Anthony Center, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York.