Clinical Scholars: Making Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Learning an Integral Part of Leadership Development

Abstract

The plethora of persistent and pervasive health inequities in the United States is a Wicked Problem which threatens the health and wellbeing of all people. To dismantle them is no easy task, and requires a health care workforce practiced in leadership skill sets embracing a deep focus on areas of equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI). This chapter describes how the core competencies and curriculum of the Clinical Scholars Program have been designed to offer this set of skills. To start, the program’s foundational set of 25 competencies cover four domains (Personal, Interpersonal, Organizational, and Community & Systems) and include both more traditional leadership competencies as well as contemporary competencies focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion. The curriculum takes the set of 25 leadership and EDI competencies and breaks them down into learning sessions where participants listen, practice, and apply the ideas, behaviors, and mindsets. The leadership core and the EDI core of the curriculum exist both in tandem and in unison to provide the full Clinical Scholars experience. At times, sessions focus on one core or the other, and at times, both leadership and EDI are present in the learning of a session. Example learning sessions for each core and the weaving of the cores together are provided. Four challenges to creating an equity-centered leadership program are identified: 1. The personalized nature of the journey of self-development; 2. Shifting Mindsets and Skill Sets; 3. Piloting an evidence-based curriculum on EDI; and 4. Maintaining engagement with participants over time and across distance. A set of top recommendations for weaving EDI and Leadership learning are also offered. The chapter details the importance of meaningfully focusing on EDI when tackling modern, wicked problems.

Equity-centered leadership training found to be both relevant and impactful by interprofessional teams of health-care clinicians: Recommendations for workforce-development efforts to update leadership training.

“…outcomes in course-evaluation scores, resident satisfaction, applicability of training to underserved populations, and improved engagement of marginalized community members. Most leadership programs are leader-centered (Grimm et al, 2015) and not equity-centered (Brandert et al, 2021;Upshaw et al, 2021).…”

“…Even the discussions of leadership using commonly implemented assessment tools are all focused on how leaders create and support thought diversity, promote psychological safety, and reduce bias. The “isms”-focused sessions also thread leadership through their content (Brandert et al, 2021). CS is unlike traditional leadership-development approaches for health-care professionals in that health equity rests at the core of each element of the program because it uses an equity-centered approach to leadership development.…”

“…All enrolled fellows in CS were asked to participate in the retreat evaluations. Table 1 Leadership and EDI Competencies and Definitions Used in the Clinical Scholars Program (Brandert et al, 2021) Personal-level competencies *Commitment to intercultural development: Continually increase one's awareness, content knowledge, cognitive sophistication, and empathetic understanding of the complex ways individuals interact within systems and institutions; develop and demonstrate an active, intentional, and ongoing engagement with diversity-in people, in the team, in populations, and in communities, with respect to ability, intellectual, social, cultural, geographical. Emotional intelligence: Ability to assess and understand the emotions of one's self, others, and groups; the ability to relate to others beyond technical concerns; the ability to implement soft skills in interpersonal or organizational settings and manage stress.…”

Leadership Development to Advance Health Equity: An Equity-Centered Leadership Framework

“…In response to such questions, and based on our collective experience designing and leading leadership development programs and health equity efforts, we offer an equity-centered leadership framework of integrated competencies to support the development of leaders for tomorrow—visionary leaders who can break down silos, tackle the root causes of health inequities, and share power to effectively partner with communities and create sustainable change in a rapidly evolving landscape (see Figure 1 ). Developed to guide an equity-focused, interprofessional leadership development program, 16 this framework interweaves leadership and EDI conceptual knowledge and skills-based teaching for health care and public health professionals (see Appendix 1 ).…”

“… An integrated framework of competencies for equity-centered leadership, developed for the Clinical Scholars Program, a leadership development experience for clinician leaders that weaves the concepts of leadership, equity, diversity, and inclusion together in a 3-year, robust curriculum, which the authors of this paper developed. 16 Source: Reproduced from Fernandez CSP, Corbie-Smith G, eds. Leading Community Based Changes in the Culture of Health in the US: Experiences in Developing the Team and Impacting the Community .…”