Addressing Racial Disparities in Maternal and Infant Health Outcomes Through an Anti-Racism Curriculum
Authors: Kalata Megan , Zeineddine Sami , Lentino Annie , Finnegan Brighdin 
Published: May 2023

OBJECTIVE:

The purpose of this project was for current and future health care professionals to acknowledge and address implicit biases through education and engagement in workshops surrounding the topic of racism in medicine.

PROJECT SUMMARY:

Current anti-racism curricula exist in various spaces, including schools, businesses, and health care. However, these curricula often target different audiences, lack interactive components, and do not always incorporate community voices into the work. Therefore, a series of novel workshops was created for students, residents, and faculty to address biases and policies that perpetuate inequity. Over the course of the 2021–2022 academic year, 74 participants engaged in three workshops addressing racial disparities in maternal and child health. The first workshop focused on allowing participants to develop a common language about race and racism, provided background and historical context, and started to encourage awareness and acceptance of responsibility for engaging in anti-racist behavior. The second workshop incorporated voices from the community to understand how those affected by the disparity feel that it can best be addressed and to explore what effective allyship means. The third workshop explored the effect of microaggressions and allowed participants to review common problematic responses to being made aware of our own biases as well as to practice responding authentically and openly. This workshop series has been expanded into a second year, with new topics based on participant feedback.

OUTCOME:

Although many participants had previously engaged in anti-racism training, there was still a lack of knowledge regarding both historical context and current factors contributing to disparities. The goal of this workshop series was to provide a forum for participants who may not otherwise have an accessible opportunity for engagement to better understand the relevance of current disparities to their practice. Through this curriculum, participants accomplished several goals, including: 1) increasing awareness about the prevalence of racial and ethnic disparities and the effect of these on health outcomes; 2) exploring implicit biases, the culture of medicine, and the difference between intention and effect; 3) understanding the role that practitioner bias plays in health outcomes; and 4) understanding culturally derived mistrust of the health care system.

RELEVANCE TO WOMEN’S HEALTH:

As health care professionals, we need to address our own implicit biases and acknowledge the collective failures as a health care system before we can build an equitable health care space. Anti-racism workshops can contribute to the elimination of systemic racism and health disparities by engaging health care professionals at various points in their personal journeys toward becoming anti-racist. This allows individuals and institutions to begin the conversations needed to address system-level policies and practices that perpetuate inequity.