Call for action: engaging pain practitioners and other health care teams in anti-racism

Excerpt

Racial inequities are increasingly recognized as an important determinant of health and wellness, and a priority for health care professionals. Awareness of personal bias and structural barriers to equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is slowly increasing in health care, with medical schools examining admission standards to increase diversity and physicians calling for anti-racism to be included in professional standards.^1‐3 Research and development of active mechanisms to address racism in hospitals and in anesthesiology is sparse. Outside of discussion of racism and its impact on health care, and journal calls for EDI-related articles (e.g., this month’s Special Issue of the Journal on Equity in Anesthesiology and Critical Care), there remains a paucity of active attempts to drive change in and for health care workers. Furthermore, Black health care providers (among other racialized groups) experience lack of support or mentorship from colleagues, and both subtle and overt racism from colleagues and patients.⁴ We developed a workshop to address some inequities experienced by racialized patients and pain specialists (including anesthesiologists), facilitate open dialogue, and contribute to promoting the importance of dismantling systemic racism within a pediatric hospital. …