Memorandum helps boost gender equity in internal medicine
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Key takeaways:
- The Memorandum of Understanding produced notable gender bias improvements among several internal medicine residency programs in areas such as career development, sexual harassment and recruitment.
- Surveys showed progress in training of recognition and response to sexual harassment (0% to 57%), tracking gender equity metrics (43% to 57%) and possessing clean, safe lactation areas (29% to 100%).
CHICAGO – A memorandum has helped participating internal medicine residency programs recognize gender-based gaps and track related gender equity metrics, researchers found.
“Our hope is that the broader we can reach, the more impact we can have in terms of focusing on best practices and implementation guidelines to promote gender equity during training,” lead author Alexandra Lane, MD, an assistant professor of medicine at Cooper Medical School of Rowan University, told Healio.
Lane and colleagues examined the impact of the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) through anonymous surveys to participants. They presented the findings at the Women in Medicine Summit in Chicago.
Signed on to by nine internal medicine residency programs in January 2020, the MOU was designed to address the subtopics of gender bias in recruitment, family friendly policies, sexual harassment and career development.
Surveys assessing current program policies, their relation to gender bias and equity, and participants’ experiences with the MOU were sent 1 year after the memorandum’s signing, which seven programs (78%) responded to.
Lane and colleagues found measurable increases in every subtopic. Progress was seen through:
- prioritization of diversity, inclusion and equity as a recruitment strategy, improving from 29% to 100%;
- training in implicit bias, improving 14% to 75%; and
- tracking gender-equity metrics, improving 43% to 57%.
Major strides were made in creating more transparency for family-oriented policies, according to the researchers. Lane and colleagues reported that 86% of participating internal medicine programs ensured employees were aware of and had a copy of parental leave guidelines, a jump from 14%. In addition, 100% had clean lactation spaces, while 86% disseminated family policies to employees.
Similarly, the programs also improved upon face-to-face training on recognition and response to sexual harassment (0% to 57%) and education of reporting (43% to 86%), while enhancing scholarly output (0% to 14%) and resident awards (57% to 100%).
Lane said that given the high effectiveness of the MOU — a surprising finding for researchers — “we hope that we can spread to more regions and foster a community of accountability and dedication around gender equity practices in medicine.”
Reference:
- Lane A, et al. The effectiveness of a Memorandum of Understanding on gender equity practices in internal medicine residency programs. Presented at: Women in Medicine Summit; Sept. 16-17, 2022; Chicago.
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Lane A, et al. The effectiveness of a Memorandum of Understanding on gender equity practices in internal medicine residency programs. Presented at: Women in Medicine Summit; Sept. 16-17, 2022; Chicago.
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