Leveraging Resident-As-Teacher Training for Health Equity Education: A Transformative Approach

Abstract

Issue: Resident teachers play an essential role in medical education and can support broader efforts to advance anti-racism and health equity in medicine. The Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education requires programs to provide education about health care disparities so residents can contribute to and lead work in this area. However, the literature includes few examples, frameworks, or strategies for preparing residents to develop the knowledge and skills needed to promote health equity, including in their role as clinical teachers. Evidence: In this article, the authors propose leveraging Resident-as-Teacher training to support residents in learning and teaching for health equity. Gorski’s conceptualization of equity literacy provides an evidence-based framework for four main abilities (recognizing, responding, redressing, and cultivating/sustaining) residents and medical students can develop through co-learning about health equity in the clinical learning environment. The authors discuss preconditions, example activities, and assessments strategies for effective health equity education. Based on the principles of social learning theory, the authors recommend that Resident-as-Teacher training be part of an institutional strategy to cultivate a community of practice for health equity education. Implications: Incorporating health equity education into Resident-as-Teacher curriculum offers a potentially transformative part of the broader strategy needed to prepare the next generation of physicians to enact anti-racism and advance health equity.

Keywords:

• Clinical teaching
• graduate medical education
• health equity
• resident teachers

Conflict of interest

The authors declare none.

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.