Background:
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) called systemic racism a public health crisis in 2021. This crisis underscored the already-documented racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in child health. The Pediatrics Diversity Collaborative is a resident-led initiative established in 2019 at the University of California-San Diego Department of Pediatrics/Rady Children’s Hospital. Our mission is to educate future leaders to address child health inequity and structural racism through academic activities.
Methods:
The Collaborative established a quarterly health equity Journal Club to raise awareness and create discussions on racial/ethnic and socio-economic child health disparities. We conducted a 11-item cross-sectional anonymous survey with Likert-scale and free-text responses to assess impact of our Journal Club, including knowledge and practice, satisfaction, feedback, and topics of interest.
Results:
Six Journal clubs have taken place since 2021. Topics included environmental factors affecting child health and health in vulnerable populations. Attendance per meeting ranged from 15-20 participants (65% residents, 35% faculty). Forty-four participants (48%) completed the survey with 57% of respondents reporting having a “good” understanding of child health disparities pre-Journal Club and 91% reporting “good/excellent” understanding post-attendance. Ninety-seven percent “agreed/strongly agreed” that the Journal Club improved their understanding of child health disparities, 100% “agreed/strongly agreed” the information presented was useful, and 97% “agreed/strongly agreed” that the Journal Club is effective in encouraging research or changes in clinical practice. Further, 77% stated that they were “likely/extremely likely” to incorporate health equity into future projects. The Journal Club has led to requests to hospital administration for resources for vulnerable patients (in-person Spanish interpreters, increase hospital signage regarding rights to interpretation), and involvement in quality improvement projects (improving discharge processes for Spanish-speaking families).
Conclusion:
We successfully established a resident-driven health equity-focused Journal Club. Acceptability and satisfaction were high and survey findings showed potential impact on knowledge gain in health disparities, changes in clinical practice and future incorporation of health equity into projects. Our Journal Club provides a safe environment to engage in sensitive discussions with support from topic-expert faculty. Promoting pediatrics residents’ awareness of child health inequities can help address structural racism and health disparities.
