Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Curriculum Embedded in a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Residency Program

ABSTRACT

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are continuing to have increased importance in medical training, including rehabilitation medicine. Although resident-led curricula have been integrated into medical education in other training programs, to our knowledge, this the first report focusing on integrating these topics into resident education for a Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation (PM&R) program. We created a didactic curriculum for our rehabilitation residents that included: quarterly lectures on DEI topics followed by small group discussions. Each session also included an article that was included in the discussion. The sessions utilized both anonymous pre and post-survey data to assess the efficacy of our initiative. Our initial data showed that our quarterly sessions created a safe and comfortable environment for discussing DEI topics. In addition, our session specific data supported that increased awareness of DEI disparities with rehabilitation and medicine was achieved. Our committee used the data and feedback to create further iterations of this initiative within our program, and we believe that this is a model that can be adopted by other PM&R residencies.