Racism, Microaggressions, and Allyship in Health Care A Narrative Approach to Learning

This book provides a complete teaching companion that an organization can use to educate on the hard topics of racism, antiracism, microaggressions, bias and allyships. It explores the experience of underrepresented minority trainees and other healthcare professionals with racism and allyship.

Talking about racism is challenging due to the amount of associated pain, suffering and strong emotions. Creating a respectful, open, interactive and safe place to have conversations, teach and learn is paramount in order to produce change in the healthcare environment. Using narratives to facilitate difficult conversations is familiar to healthcare professionals, and with humility reminds us that we are all "patients" that also need healing. Narratives promote self-reflection and have the power to change beliefs and attitudes.

The volume opens with introductory chapters that focus on definitions, historical context and the current climate of racism, bias, microaggressions and allyship. Narratives are presented in 42 chapters organized by themes of racism, microaggression, allyship, sexism and health equity. Each narrative is an honest representation of real-life encounters within the healthcare system. The narratives include personal experiences of racism in health care, explicit and implicit bias, microaggressions and experiences of anti-racist efforts and allyship. There are clear instructions on how to use the narratives for teaching and to facilitate discussion. Among the book's benefits:

• Explicitly includes the perspective of trainees and administration;
• Engages learners in affective and emotional learning as well as practical and cognitive learning modes;
• Provides a series of historical cases, consistent with the preferred and traditional learning modality of health professions;
• Includes an array of activities, tools and learning exercises.

Racism, Microaggressions and Allyship in Health Care is a timely and essential text for medical student and resident training, graduate and undergraduate nursing programs, advanced practice care providers, clinical faculty and staff development, CME workshops, public health programs, and hospital administration. It also is a useful resource for undergraduate pre-medicine programs, structural racism courses, and advanced social science courses (health disparities, medical sociology, inequality, healthcare policy). 

1. Introduction .- Part I. Concepts.- 2. Racism .- 3. Allyship.- 4. Impact and Strategies .- Part II. Narratives on the Topic of Racism.- 5. Introduction to Narratives on the Topic of Racism.- 6. Angry and Aggressive.- 7. Discrimination .- 8. Getting to the Heart of the Matter .- 9. A Good Fit .- 10. Case of a Missing Radio .- 11. Model Minority .- 12. Who is the President? .- Part III. Narratives on the Topic of Microaggression.- 13. Introduction to the Microaggression Narratives.- 14. A Patient in Labor.- 15. Disclosure .- 16. Get IV Fluids .- 17. Identity.- 18. Nurse Curse .- 19. Off the Camel’s Back.- 20. Outsider .- 21. People Like You .- 22. Resignation .- 23. Respect .- 24. Rough Sex .- 25. Scared Medical Student .- 26. Silent Suffering: The Plight of Foreign Doctors in the Workplace .- 27. My Partner’s Parts .- 28. Unwelcome.- Part IV. Narratives on the Topic of Allyship.- 29. Introduction to the Allyship Narratives.- 30. Bubble .- 31. Fearless .- 32. Pronouns .- 33. Who is it about?.- 34. The Doctor and the First Name.- Part V. Narratives on the Topic of Sexism.- 35. Introduction to Narratives about Sexism 4.- 36. Assigning Value .- 37. Boundaries .- 38. Does a Title Matter?.- 39. Awkward .- 40. Female and Young .- 41. It Shouldn’t Be This Hard .- 42. Mansplained.- 43. Patriarchal Culture.- 44. Resources .- 45. Situation .- 46. Team Dynamics.- Part VI. Health Equity Rounds.- 47. Introduction to Health Equity Rounds .- 48. Hallway Care.- 49. A 17-Year Error.- 50. Dimensions of Wellness .- 51. No Assistance for Finding Assistance.- Part VII. Resources.- 52. Voices of Healthcare Executives.- 53. Guidelines for Narratives Workshops.- 54. Empowering Excellence: Co-designing a Medical Education Initiative.

Ifeolorunbode (Bode) Adebambo, MD is Associate Professor of Family Medicine at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). She is an educator and clinician serving the disproportionately impacted populations of Cleveland, Ohio. Clinically, she directs inpatient care for the Department of Family Medicine and previously served as Medical Director for a non-profit organization serving immigrant and refugee populations in Northeast Ohio. She has trained diverse learners as health professionals and taught health disparities in the CWRU School of Medicine and at MetroHealth System. Her prior teaching led to development of a previous book: Health Disparities: Weaving a New Understanding with Case Narratives (2019). She is passionate about ending inequities in health care.

Adam T. Perzynski, PhD is Professor of Medicine and Sociology at Case Western Reserve University in the Center for Health Care Research and Policy within The MetroHealth System. His broad research interests include medical sociology, health disparities, aging, social determinants of health, structural equation modeling, and qualitative and mixed methods.  His books and research, including Health Disparities: Weaving a New Understanding with Case Narratives (2019) bring a compassionate, broad approach to educating health professionals about how social circumstances shape lives and health outcomes. Dr. Perzynski’s publications span many disciplines and stand out against the backdrop of a career long effort to infuse the study of biomedical scientific problems with the knowledge, theories and methods of social science.