Doug Char participated in Cohort 1 of NCCJ St. Louis's FaciliTrainer Certification Program (FTCP), with a team of colleagues from Washington University’s School of Medicine (WUSM). The past two years, Doug has asked NCCJ to help facilitate first-year medical students in learning about implicit bias in the healthcare setting. When we reached out to see if he needed us this year, Doug shared that he revised the session a bit and is using internal discussion leaders, in order to highlight our non-clinician leaders. He went on to provide the following update to his work on inclusion and equity:

"In large part because of of NCCJ influence, I’ve expanded the diversity & inclusion curricular thread for medical students from 1 session in their first year to 6 sessions of their four years (beyond the diversity retreat that fellow FTCP graduate Dr. Will Ross leads during orientation). Named IDEA: Inclusion, Diversity, Health Equity and Advocacy), this increases their exposure to this critical content to 12 hours:

First year, first semester: Challenges of Overcoming Health Disparities: Students tour Pruitt-Igoe site, view the documentary The Myth of Pruitt-Igoe, and engage in facilitated dialogue.
First year, second semester: Implicit Bias and Social Identities
Second year: Multicultural Care: working with immigrants
Third year, first semester: Responding to Barbs and Provocations by Colleagues
Third year, second semester: Caring for Incendiary Patients (when they behave in racist, sexist, and otherwise intolerant ways)
Fourth year capstone: Physicians as Patient Advocate: Supporting treatment adherence and serving patients when they can’t afford care or lack access to specialty care.

I am also now working to integrate more inter-professional education with Heather Hageman (also an FTCP graduate) in her new role. Not sure this is what I ever dreamed I’d be doing four years ago, but it’s important work and needed a champion. I owe you and NCCJ big time!"