Equity, Diversity, Inclusion, Indigeneity and Accessibility | Department of Emergency Medicine | School of Medicine

Queen’s University is situated on traditional Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee Territory. We are lucky to live, learn and play on these lands.

The Emergency Medicine program at Queen’s University recognizes the systemic barriers and biases that continue to affect underrepresented communities in medicine. We have increased our focus on equity, diversity, inclusion, indigeneity and accessibility (EDIIA) to reflect the importance of this to our program, department, university and profession. Work will continue to expand and hopefully yield tangible results to improve EDIIA in medicine.

EDIIA at Queen’s Emergency Medicine:

The Department of Emergency Medicine is committed to pursuing opportunities to increase diversity of faculty, staff and trainees in an inclusive and supportive environment. The Departmental strategic plan (Strategic Plan Department of Emergency Medicine 2020-2025 (queensu.ca)) outlines this as one of the core enabling activities of the professional sustainability pillar.

In addition, focus has been put on improving healthcare outcomes for patients presenting to the emergency department and urgent care centres with the goal of improving healthcare outcomes for our vulnerable patient populations.

Early efforts are underway, namely an enhanced focus on training and educational opportunities via Grand Rounds in the domain of EDIIA and a focus on improving care outcomes and pathways for patients experiencing healthcare inequity or stigma.

In this academic year, we were honoured to learn from presentations by:

Celina Caesar Chavannes: EDIIA and Emergency Medicine – What to Consider Celina Caesar-Chavannes & Co. – Unapologetic Leadership (celinacc.ca)
Meghanne Hicks, RN – Harm Reduction, Client Engagement & Safer Use Teaching
Dr. Deji Ayonrinde and Najat Khalifa – Care for Incarcerated Patients
Dr. Heather Patterson – Shadows and Light

We look forward to forthcoming presentations from:

Sarina Cormier, Social Work – Accessibility in the Emergency Department Setting
Dr. Marina Del Rios – Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in the Provision of Healthcare in an ED setting
Jayne Lewis, RN – Intimate Partner Violence, SADV and Human Trafficking

http://www.heatherpattersonphotography.com/

EDIIA Committee:

In addition to more rounds focused on EDIIA and related topics, we have begun a grass-roots departmental EDIIA committee. This committee looks at each pillar (clinical care, administration, research and academics) to find areas to improve our approach to equity and diversity. More work is ongoing in this domain.

“Housekeeping & Objectives for the Departmental EDIIA committee”

EDIIA and Our Residency Program:

Within the Department of Emergency Medicine we are committed to ensuring a fair and equitable application process and recognize the impact coming from an underrepresented community can have on a candidate’s application.

The members of our selection committee participate in yearly implicit bias education and training prior to file review. As of this year we will be providing candidates the option of submitting the CaRMS Self Identification Questionnaire (https://carms.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/sections/4415269789709-CaRMS-Self-Identification-Questionnaire). We recognize that the decision to include this questionnaire in a candidate’s application package is a personal one, and we will in no way disadvantage candidates who choose, or choose not to, self-identify.

Questionnaires will be considered after the initial file review process as we strive towards diverse representation in Emergency Medicine and ensuring that physicians reflect the demographic composition of Canadian society. Following the interview invitations the CSIQ will no longer impact the selection process and the documents will be securely disposed of.

EDIIA and the Queen’s Health Sciences:

The FHS, under the leadership of Dr. Jane Philpott, has launched the QHS EDIIA Action plan. More information can be found on their website QHS EDIIA Action Plan | Faculty of Health Sciences | Queen's University | Faculty of Health Sciences | Queen's University (queensu.ca) and outlines 9 pillars of focus.