Elizabeth Johnson, BA, AA, from the occupational therapy doctorate program, and Poornima Vasireddy, MS, BDS, NTR, from the School of Dentistry are working with the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education to support the advancement of two strategic imperatives: addressing racism within health care teams and engaging individuals, families and communities in the Nexus Summit. The team is working to develop and refine the patient, family and community curated resource collection, curate a special collection focused on aspects of racism and caste within health care teams, and develop practical tools and resources to promote awareness and engagement of key topics, issues and opportunities.
“I've learned about how systematic and widespread racism and caste is in health care in the U.S. and internationally. This project has highlighted possible interventions and actions I can use to address issues on the individual, system, and legislative levels,” said Johnson.
The team has completed the resource and literature review portion and will be assessing the resources and categorizing them to establish themes.
“Through this internship, I learned about disparities and the current landscape in the health care system,” said Vasireddy. “As a health care professional, this will help me better work with my future colleagues and patients.”