Inclusive Excellence in the Department of Neurosurgery
Carolina Sandoval-Garcia, MD�Associate Professor, Departments of Neurosurgery and Pediatrics�University of Minnesota Medical School
Outline
July 2020
First Diversity director was appointed as part of the leadership council.
Major social / political changes - growing appreciation for relevance of this role.
★ In the wake of recent civil unrest - pandemic in the background disparities have become painfully evident on our daily life and news feeds.
As a department - join in those efforts, modify our vision to reflect the relevance of this principles and designate someone to help streamline and translate initiatives into our practice.
22 Faculty
16 Trainees
18 Clinical
11 Admin staff
50+ Research
~117 Members
From our curriculum to our recruitment strategies, access to leadership positions and daily work in clinical, administrative or research settings there are several areas to examine what we do and commit to improving how we do it.
Diversity Equity and Inclusion Committee
Faculty
Trainees
Clinical
Admin
Research
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
DEI Council ��Goals, Objectives, Tasks and Action Steps�
Recruitment and Retention Efforts
-Ensuring a diversity representative participates in hiring committees. -Review available metrics and dashboards.
-Facilitate mentoring for minority and/or disadvantaged trainees or other department members.
Health Disparities Research
-Foster collaboration between interested parties, identify research topics and propose relevant journal club papers.
Outreach and mentoring
-Identify opportunities to engage (i.e., community volunteer activities).
-Identify partner institutions and establish initial contact for interest groups.
-Assist in organizing a 4th year minority and/or disadvantaged student visiting clerkship. Provider outreach into rural areas. Global health.
Curricular intervs and learning opportunities
-Securing speakers and resources to support development of innovative, impactful learning sessions.
-Coordinate grand rounds and evaluate interest in additional specific training.
Disseminate information, ensure complaint systems
-Identify a list of resources and content.
-Discuss the best way to disseminate and update info, website development / content generation.
-Discuss mechanism allowing people to submit anonymous ideas and concerns.
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
-Selected climate survey to be applied yearly, recommend actions on concerns brought forth in the yearly survey
-Apply medical school wide initiatives to survey and maintain dashboards with information and metrics
State principles and values
Determine departmental DEI statement and dissemination mechanisms
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
Basic Principles
We plan to accomplish this by:
Recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce
Providing mentorship and leadership by example
Educating ourselves in bias and intercultural competence.
We believe this to be essential in carrying out our duties of education, innovation and delivery of the highest quality of equitable, compassionate and socially aware healthcare to our patients and surrounding community.
As a department, we reject any form of discrimination and pledge to establish a department-wide culture of equity and inclusion.
We recognize that our mission and work environment is stronger when there is a diverse and inclusive community.
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
~ 100 surveys sent
36 responses
First DEI department climate survey launched December 2020
Lingras & Vrieze, 2018 (adapted from the DES (Plummer D, Person SD, Fink Ogawa LM, Jordan CG, Allison JJ, Castillo-Page L, Schoolcraft S. Diversity engagement survey, User Guide. University of Massachusetts. 2012))
Survey Sections
Overall Climate
Perception of climate topics in past year
Rate your own personal experience
Recruitment topics
Training topics
What is done well, what can be different, examples
DEI committee impact
Self awareness of DEI, antiracism
Incorporating discussions into your work
Demographics
What is done well, what to�change, examples...
“Forming a committee, having discussions and dedicated time for DEI”
“Following a talk about the Hmong culture I had a patient who we needed to withdraw care on. The previous talk really helped me understand the how to interact with the family in this situation”
“I have no examples because I can not recall any time that the dept has expressed interest in DEI as being important.”
“Perhaps the dept is making an attempt to enhance DEI concepts and I've just never been included but I've not heard nor seen any examples. I can not recall even one conversation around DEI concepts in the dept the many years I've worked here.” |
Areas of Improvement
”There could be more regular or widespread diversity training” |
“Provide more resources to all department employees; highlight DEI issues in the newsletter”
Average | 70.61111111 |
2021 Average | 52.86111111 |
Change | 17.75 |
| |
t test p value | 0.002616988 |
2021
2022/2023
Things we are doing well…
” DEI conferences have been consistent, engaging and diverse in topics” |
“Newsletters, DEI Grand Rounds, inclusion by inviting all members of the department (and MS wide)…”
“DEI committee, updates in all provider meeting”
“There have been several good speakers "zoomed" into our meetings…”
Areas of Improvement
”Could be more engagement with the community and discussions/movements regarding health disparity within neurosurgery in Minnesota.” |
“More active participation from staff…”
“Please provide training materials on regular basis
“Reflect DEI in our marketing more…”
“Recruit a more diverse group of people with the caveat that Minnesota can be a difficult place to do so…”
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
https://med.umn.edu/neurosurgery/diversity
Monitoring systems and tools (U report)
Main Communication Channel
dei@umn.edu
�Celebrate holidays and events, fundraise.
Collaboration between Neurosurgery and Neurology DEI committees
Be intentional about marketing and patient stories
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
Building an inclusive pipeline
High school students
Medical Students
https://sites.google.com/umn.edu/go4brains/
Aim Academy Science and Technology |
Apple Valley High School |
Armstrong High School |
Blaine High School |
Columbia Heights High School |
Concordia Academy Roseville |
DeLaSalle High School |
East Ridge High School |
Eden Prairie High School |
Edina High School |
Edison High School |
El Colegio |
Fridley High School |
Great River School |
Harding Senior High School |
Highland Park Senior High School |
Hmong College Prep Academy |
Hopkins High School |
Mahtomedi High School |
Math and Science Academy |
Minneapolis Southwest High School |
Minnesota Connections Academy |
Minnetonka High School |
MNCA |
North High School |
North St. Paul Senior High School |
Nova Classical Academy |
Osseo High School |
Robbinsdale Armstrong High School |
Roosevelt High School |
Roseville Area High School |
Saint Louis Park High School |
Saint Paul Central High School |
Sejong Academy |
South Saint Paul High School |
SPPS Online School |
Spring Lake Park High School |
St. Croix Lutheran Academy |
STEP Academy |
Stillwater Area High School |
Wayzata High school |
Westonka High School |
Woodbury High School |
2025 Go4Brains Cohort
2024
Lawrence “Brennan” VanDyke
MS-1
UAMS College of Medicine Northwest Arkansas
2025
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Council Charter
GOAL 1
State principles and values
GOAL 2
Define and measure status of DEI and track progress
GOAL 3
Disseminate and share information, ensure availability of complaint systems
GOAL 4
Curricular intervent and learning opportunities
GOAL 5
Outreach and mentoring
GOAL 6
Health Disparities Research
GOAL 7
Recruitment and Retention Efforts����
At the national level
Timothy George Committee on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Final Considerations
Thank you!
csandova@umn.edu