Health Equity and Racial Justice Pathway
The HEAR Justice Pathway is a foundational learning experience for residents, fellows, and medical students who are committed to addressing inequity and oppression in healthcare and to exploring meaningful opportunities to advance racial and social justice. HEAR Justice is an intentional space for learners to engage in critical reflection and skill building around improving health outcomes for marginalized communities, creating an equitable medical learning environment, and dismantling systems of oppression.
HEAR Justice Pathway Objectives
Upon completion of the course, learners will:
- Foundational Frameworks: understand foundational concepts and frameworks to advance racial and social justice
- Equity in Patient Care: gain knowledge and skills necessary to improve care for marginalized patient populations in order to advance health equity
- Interpersonal Relationships and Community Building: understand the complexity and power dynamics in their interpersonal relationships and build community with colleagues, patients, and families from diverse backgrounds
- Critical Self-Reflection and Personal Inquiry: critically reflect on their intersectionality and positionality in order to continuously advance along the anti-oppression continuum
- Health Systems and Structures: examine inequity and oppression in the broader healthcare system and apply strategies to reduce systemic oppression through advocacy and policy change
HEAR Justice Course Highlights
The ethos of HEAR Justice is rooted in the concept of critical consciousness, which describes anti-oppression praxis as a simultaneous process of critical reflection to understand the structures that sustain inequity and critical action to dismantle oppressive conditions.
The 5-day intensive week includes:
- Didactics to introduce foundational concepts and frameworks
- Workshops to practice application of tools and skills
- Intentional space for critical self-reflection and group reflection
- Community-building for a multidisciplinary group of learners across UCSF
- Sessions by anti-oppression leaders within and beyond UCSF
Community of Praxis
After completing the intensive course, learners may elect to participate in Community of Praxis sessions. These sessions aim to create a longitudinal, supportive learning community for participants to engage in critical self-reflection and personal growth. Learners will receive support from the course directors and fellow participants as they deepen their engagement in anti-oppression praxis in their personal and professional development. These hour-long drop-in sessions will be held several times throughout the year during lunch or weekday evening hours. The sessions will be tailored to the learners’ individual needs, and may include:
- Doing a deeper dive into foundational concepts and frameworks discussed during the intensive course
- Helping learners apply an antiracism and health equity lens to scholarly projects (e.g., quality improvement, research, curriculum development, community collaborations)
- Discussing challenges learners are facing in their antiracism journey and sharing strategies and resources
- Making space to discuss experiences of racism and oppression in the learning environment and current events
