Hispanic Heritage Month
Hispanic Heritage Month (HHM) takes place from September 15 to October 15 each year to recognize the accomplishments of, challenges facing, and rich diversity among the Hispanic diaspora in the United States. Notably, HHM represents an ideal forum for medical trainees, physicians, and other members of our healthcare system to understand the experiences of Hispanic patients and physicians, who together comprise 18% of the general US population and represent the country’s largest non-white ethno-racial group.
Mission
We are committed to increasing the recruitment, retention and advancement of faculty, fellows and residents from groups under-represented in medicine as well as to promote an inclusive environment across the department.
Bias Reduction in Internal Medicine
The Department of Medicine is excited to be part of the Bias Reduction in Internal Medicine (BRIM) iniative, moving us towards enduring institutional diversity and inclusiveness.
Visiting Residents and Scholars
We are proud to offer two programs that are designed to give students with diverse backgrounds a chance to experience the training that the University of Washington Department of Medicine has to offer.
Research
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center for Transformative Research
The mission of the University of Washington Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Center for Transformative Research (UW-JEDICTR) is to study and ultimately eliminate health disparities by promoting the principles of justice, equity, diversity and inclusion in the research of vulnerable populations, and by increasing the recruitment, retention and advancement of students, residents, fellows, and faculty from groups under-represented in medicine.
First Visiting Resident
We welcomed Dr. Tara Reid as our first visiting resident in 2018. She subsequently matched into our Infectious Diseases Fellowship program.
Recruitment
All members of Department of Medicine search committees participate in Equity, Access, and Inclusion in Hiring training on best practices regarding faculty candidate outreach, assessment, recruitment and retention.
Faculty development
We currently have a robust faculty mentoring program and plan to increase our underrepresented minority (URM) retention by developing a minority faculty mentoring program.
Mentoring is an essential element for faculty career advancement in academic medicine.
A strong mentoring relationship contributes to academic success, productivity, and career satisfaction. Despite the known benefits of mentoring, the lack of mentoring remains a persistent problem in academic medicine, particularly in faculty from URM.
Given that URM faculty are promoted at lower rates, and report lower career satisfaction, the need for a dynamic mentoring program is even greater for junior URM faculty members.
Daniel Cabrera receives inaugural Diversity Faculty Mentorship Award
This award honors a faculty member who demonstrates exceptionalism in mentoring underrepresented physician trainees and who champions an environment of diversity and inclusivity.