DEI at Swedish First Hill
As with all work related to equity, the mission of DEI at Swedish First Hill FMR is constantly evolving. We strive to build upon our foundation of anti-racism and inclusivity to best serve our communities both locally and abroad. Our faculty and residents have created a coalition within the residency to aid in facilitating robust bias reporting, exploring intersectionality with resident-led reading groups and peer sharing, and constantly turning a critical lens inward to continue our own self-growth.
Systems-based
SFH FMR is currently collaborating with Swedish’s Office of Health Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (OHEDI) on expanding our residency work into the Swedish system as a whole. This includes developing:
Swedish-wide bias reporting tool
Collaboration with implicit bias training in areas of need in the hospital
Further engagement with physicians of color at Swedish as resident mentors
In addition, we have worked at a Providence St. Joseph (PSJH) level to create a modular anti-racism curriculum and recruitment best practices guidelines for equitable recruitment of medical students in the system.
Internal Reflection
Acknowledging fallibility in growth is a core component of ensuring that the DEI work we do is consistently evaluated. As we continue to grow below are some of the efforts that have come forth to date:
Implicit bias M&M
Anti-racism reading group
Anti-racism reading library
Caucusing
Mandatory anti-racism foundational workshops for faculty
Programmatic bias reporting tool and confidential feedback tool
Annual Diversity Retreat to continue internal growth and strategic planning of future work
Community Medicine & Local Advocacy
SFH FMR looks to combine efforts in community medicine and local advocacy with longitudinal commitments in 4 domains. Each group has a rotating resident lead and permanent faculty lead.
Reproductive Justice
Faculty Lead: Claire Thomson, MD
The Reproductive Justice group aims to support the human rights of reproductive justice as defined by SisterSong, i.e. to maintain personal bodily autonomy, have children, not have children, and parent the children we have in safe and sustainable communities. Residents in in the Reproductive Justice group will work with our community partners, SURGE (https://www.surgereprojustice.org) and the Black Birth Workers Collective on projects supporting reproductive justice in our community.
LGBTQI+ Health
Faculty Lead: Kevin Wang, MD
The LGBTQi Health group aims to improve access and quality of healthcare for LGBTQI+ communities through partnership, service, and education. We also work to continue to foster, expand, and strengthen both new and existing relationships with local, national, and international LGBTQI+ advocacy and support organizations. We are currently partnered with Camp Ten Trees (https://camptentrees.org,) Lambert House (http://www.lamberthouse.org) , and Entre Hermanos (https://entrehermanos.org) .
Housing & Homelessness
Faculty Lead: Maureen Brown, MD
The Homelessness Community Medicine group is focused on creating community partnerships with organizations and individuals experiencing homelessness. We are currently strengthening existing connections with King County Health Care for the Homeless Network, Public Health Nursing's Kid's Plus Program for homeless families, Mary's Place family shelter (https://www.marysplaceseattle.org), as well as Seattle's tiny home communities (https://lihi.org/tiny-houses/tiny-house-village). Residents will be involved in direct health education of families as well as advocacy aimed at optimizing the health and wellbeing of those living homeless.
Health Access & Outreach
Faculty Lead: Karl Dietrich, MD
The goal of our group is to improve healthcare access through outreach to our community and partnership with existing programs and schools. Our current working projects are as follows:
Doctor for a Day and Pipeline Work: Partnership with UW SOM Center for Health Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion to provide outreach to youth of color in the Seattle area. Our is goal is to eventually work with local school(s) to build a summer shadowing program with our residents and faculty.
Community Health Boards: Involvement in several community health boards such as the Ethiopian (https://www.ecseattle.org) and Somali (https://somalihealthboard.org) Health Boards to further advocate for our immigrant patients, including organizing annual health fairs for these communities.
UW School of Medicine Free Clinics: Partnership with UW SOM to provide educational opportunities for residents to work closely with medical students and provide medical care for low-access communities around the Seattle area.
State & National Advocacy
Whether on a state or national level, we strive to provide residents with experiences to help them grow the necessary skillsets to be effective advocates for their patients and communities.
