Diversity

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The three signs depicted in this graphic were part of an innovative awareness campaign called "Heads Up!" aimed at reducing racial and ethnic disparities in health care. For three months in 2007-2008, the signs were placed on University of Washington School of Medicine shuttle buses used by thousands of health care workers who traveled daily between the School of Medicine and its teaching partner institution, Harborview Medical Center. The project, among the first to address racial stereotyping in racial health disparities, will continue to be used by PA education programs, AAPA constituent groups, and other organizations, sharing AAPA's commitment to ending racial health disparities. Bring this project to your program, organization, or state association! You can also receive CME Category I credit! For more information, please contact Lynn Schoenfelder, Staff Advisor COD; This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

A DVD funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and produced by The George Washington University’s School of Public Health and Health Services is available here. The video is an animated PowerPoint presentation given by two GW faculty members. Its video presents essential information on the state of health disparities and the awareness of them by providers, highlighting some potential solutions to addressing disparities by clinicians, especially within the hospital setting. The PowerPoint in the video can be downloaded and used separately for teaching purposes.

AAPA Committee on Diversity	Diversity Tools
Diversity Presentations	Diversity Spotlight
Health Care Issues	Health Care Resources
AAPA Ethnocultural Caucuses	COD Resolutions
AAPA COD Minutes

AAPA Committee on Diversity

The AAPA Committee on Diversity (COD) serves to advance AAPA's commitment to all aspects of diversity.

The Committee on Diversity shall:

identify and help address issues of race, ethnic and cultural diversity;
identify and address disparities in health care;
enhance collaboration between PAs and local, regional, and national organizations on issues of diversity;
promote an inclusive environment that appreciates diversity;
provide tools to help PAs achieve cultural competence in patient care;
and promote the contributions of AAPA ethnocultural caucuses and support their efforts in eliminating disparities that impact patient care.

Eliminating Health Disparities: Diversity Tools for State Associations and Members

The AAPA Committee on Diversity is pleased to offer several tools for state associations and members:

1. Suggested Projects for State Chapters and Committees on Diversity: The following is an updated list of exciting and informative ways you can move forward on diversity projects in your state, while connecting with the work of the AAPA COD. These are excellent for both state associations as well as student diversity groups.

Bring the "Heads Up!" Racial Disparities Reduction Project to Your State: Use this web-based project as a tool to increase awareness and action about racial and other cultural disparities in care. Click here to learn more about how to bring this project to your association, school or city with "Bring This Project to Your City"! Receive Category I CME Credit!
Borrow the Highly-Acclaimed "Worlds Apart": This highly acclaimed four-part series on cross-cultural health care is available for borrowing by all AAPA chapters, and has been pre-approved by the AAPA for CME! This allows you to use it at local conferences and award CME to constituents. This project is enhanced by a detailed facilitators guide, adding structure and direction to presentations utilizing this insightful and popular tool. Contact COD advisor This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it for details.
Promote Diversity-Related CME: Participate with your state chapter to help promote diversity presentations. Assess who is speaking about these issues in your medical community and explore ways to invite them to speak at local conferences and CME events. The COD has contributed to a guide to CME competencies, an excellent tool for use by state associations. Click here to see this helpful resource to assist CME presenters in integrating diversity and other competencies into their CME presentations.
Be a Resource for the AAPA COD: Pass on the names of good speakers on diversity issues to AAPA COD.
Review Bylaws and Policy: Take a look at your state's bylaws and look for language that might be in need of updating or modification regarding diversity and minority issues or for areas where additions might be appropriate.
Collaborate with Local PA Programs: Contact local PA programs and explore ways to collaborate with them on projects (which might include mentoring of minority students and outreach to under served/minority communities in your area).
Collaborate with AAPA COD: Develop an awareness of national COD issues. Take a look at the AAPA COD's more recent minutes to see what we are up to and let us know if you have ideas/input about current or possible projects.
Network with Local PA Students: Consider filling state diversity chair position with a student. Each student society registered with SAAAPA has a SDCR (student diversity committee representative), and this can be a great way to recruit diversity committee members.
Explore Community Outreach Opportunities: Consider adopting a school to tutor.
Support Providers Working With Spanish-Speaking Patients: Consider organizing a mini-course in medical Spanish for interested individuals in your state chapter. Work with local hospitals and PAs who may be fluent and capable of teaching.

Please remember that you can always contact the AAPA COD for assistance, information, and support. We have found our contact with state chapters extremely helpful. We want to be your resource and hope you will become ours as well! Please contact This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

2. Use our "Promoting a More Diverse AAPA" Tool: Diversity is a strategic business imperative for the AAPA, and we strive to enhance implementation of best business practice recommendations in this area. Diversity efforts help us to attract, retain and motivate the best people drawn from the broadest pool of applicants. These efforts also ensure that every person has a seat at the table. And, perhaps the most important of all, they enable the AAPA to best serve our constituents by tapping the insights and talents of a diverse leadership pool. To learn more about this issue, the COD has created a development tool that provides:

the business rationale for diversity as a strategic management directive;
criteria that can be utilized for self-evaluation as well as during appointment and nomination processes;
recommendations for individual improvement related to each of the criteria.

By integrating these criteria into self-assessments, and considering these criteria during leadership appointments and nominations, we serve to benefit our profession, our constituents and our patients. On behalf the COD, we hope this tool proves useful to you in developing the highest caliber of leadership while incorporating diversity as a strategic management directive. Click here to view the "Promoting a More Diverse AAPA" tool.

Diversity Presentations

Currently there are several AAPA COD Powerpoint Presentations on diversity available to members online. All have been approved for presentation to AAPA national conferences, and are available for you to present to your state meetings. (Note: Please credit the AAPA Committee on Diversity and the individual presenters who have created these presentations. Please contact the COD for additional information about these presentations, or with questions about the use of for additional background information on these talks and their topics.)

Race and Health, presented by PA Howard Straker at the 2006 AAPA Conference in San Francisco, debunks the myth of race, underscoring the unscientific use of race as a proxy for other causes of racial health disparities.
Disparities In The Psychiatric Treatment of Ethnic Minority Groups, presented by Shellane F. Crisostomo, PA-C, at the AAPA 2006 Conference in San Francisco. This talk looks at the provocative data on race and psychiatric care, leading to some surprising conclusions.
Health Disparities and Social Justice , presented by Jim Anderson PA-C, at the 2006 AAPA San Francisco Conference. Examining the multiple social determinants or racial and other health disparities, this CME presentation also examines the role of clinician bias in unequal treatment of patients.
Cross Cultural Perspectives on Intimate Partner Violence, by Trisha Harris-Odimgbe for the 2008 San Antonio AAPA Conference. This is a companion CME to the April 2008 Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants review article by the same name. This CME provides clinicians with tools and background for understanding and treating patients from a variety of backgrounds.
Childhood Obesity: The Edipdemic That Crosses All Ethnic and Cultural Barriers. This popular presentation by AAPA Board member Patti Pagels looks at the cultural aspects of childhood obesity, offering general background and action plans, as well as examining the cultural context of this challenging phenomenon. This was presented at the 2006 AAPA Conference in San Francisco.
Adapting the Medical History for a Diverse Population. Presented by PAs Eva Montes, Karen Mulitalo and Patti Pagels at the 2002 AAPA conference in New Orleans, the presentation provides insightful and historic background for understanding and caring for patients from widely divergent backgrounds.