STRATEGIES FOR ADDRESSING AND MITIGATING THE LACK OF DIVERSITY IN EMERGENCY MEDICINE By Reuben William Horace, II MPH Emergency medicine (EM) has experienced incredible growth over the past decade; unfortunately, growth in the number of EM physicians from underrepresented minority (URM) backgrounds remains stagnant. Increasing the number of underrepresented minorities in graduate medical education, particularly in emergency medicine, is a priority that continues to be actively supported and advocated by numerous medical professional societies such as the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine (SAEM), American College of Emergency Physicians (ACEP), Council of Emergency Residency Program Directors (CORD), and National Medical Association (NMA). With this understanding of the lack of underrepresented minorities in emergency medicine, graduate medical education institutions have incorporated diversity and inclusion committees as part of
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their effort to not only attract these minority groups, but to also bridge the gap in emergency medicine. Embracing diversity and inclusion in the workplace and professional societies has the potential to improve patient care and outcomes. Some of our country’s emergency departments regularly serve these minority patients and the trend will continue to rise as our population becomes more and more diverse. As a result, a diverse workforce in EM is more representative of the larger population, and diverse providers can bring their unique experiences and understanding of patient backgrounds, leading to increased cultural sensitivity and improved care for the diverse emergency department (ED) patient population. Furthermore, studies have shown that patients gravitate more to physicians similar to themselves, and that when patients
