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Newsletters July 15, 2022

Summer 2022 Newsletter

 
Beyond Flexner Alliance Summer 2022 Newsletter


“Or when I would feel overwhelmed by what was going on in the world, I would just say to myself: “Hope is a discipline.”… the practice of making a decision every day, that you’re still gonna put one foot in front of the other, that you’re still going to get up in the morning…we have an opportunity at every moment to push in a direction that we think is actually a direction towards more justice.” – Mariame Kaba, Organizer and Transformative Justice Practitioner, Author of, “We Do This ‘Til We Free Us”
 

These are trying times for many of us in the health professions committed to social mission. The Supreme Court’s verdict gutting Roe v. Wade has been a massive blow to the rights of women and pregnant people to access safe abortion care. With abortion care no longer a guaranteed right, women and pregnant people lose a crucial safety net on which they can fall back on in unforeseen circumstances. In a country where the maternal mortality rate reaches unimaginably high levels, outlawing abortion ignores the larger picture relating to healthcare access. The reversal of this protection from a federal to a states’ rights issue has implemented trigger laws in a handful of states, making abortion a criminal medical procedure, putting both patients and practitioners at risk of criminalization. Our institutions have been impacted as well, as the training of our learners in these states that criminalize abortion are now jeopardized. Now, many of our future providers are faced with an uphill battle to receive the education they need around family planning and abortion care.


President Biden’s most recent federal declaration to protect abortion rights for medical emergencies has been welcome news for many providers, many of whom have their hands tied when it came to whether they could provide life saving care for unsafe pregnancies. However, even with this silver lining, it is hard not to acknowledge how daunting the situation has felt in a situation that many feel as hopeless. But we cannot stop now. In the words of organizer Mariame Kaba, “Hope is a discipline”. It is not the feeling of hope that sustains us through difficult times, it is the practice of struggle that brings us over towards the change that we seek. Our commitment to social mission, our commitment to improving the institutions we are a part of and the clinical settings in which we operate, is an unwavering one. Through this practice of hope, we implore you to take up the mantle to continue advancing the work of transforming our institutions, both for the providers we and our learners want to become, and to serve as entities that can step up to the plate in advocating for the needs of our patients. We hope that in this newsletter you may find ways in which we may take those first steps, together.

 

In solidarity, 

The Beyond Flexner Alliance Team 
 
July Ally Spotlight
We at the BFA comms team launched the BFA Ally Spotlight to promote important organizations and the valuable work that they do and to maintain strong relationships with our network. This month, we are highlighting Vot-ER!  
BFA Ally Spotlight July 2022, Vot-ER.

Check out our July Ally Spotlight on our Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn to get connected! 
Come join the Beyond Flexner Alliance and Vot-ER on Thursday, July 21 at 8pm EST, to discuss the importance of integrating civic engagement in health care settings! In a moment where the political landscape of the nation consistently affects healthcare, come learn of ways in which you can be more civically engaged while making a difference in your community! Register here, we hope to see you on July 21st!
Health Justice Fellowship
 

The Beyond Flexner Alliance’s Health Justice Fellowship Program aims to nurture the talents of trainees who already show promise and commitment to advancing health justice in health professional training. Within this space, fellows hone their skills and broaden their networks in ways that will sustain them in pushing health professional institutions to be more socially accountable. The Inaugural Health Justice Fellowship has concluded for the year and this year our fellows had a chance to hone in their Op-Ed writing skills, social media advocacy skills, and organizing skills! See what some of our fellows had to say about this year’s program: 

 

“The community, the guest speakers, camaraderie, our trip to Arizona for the conference, and the student assembly were some of the most valuable aspects! It is hard to pick one part since the entirety of the fellowship was invaluable and one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.”

 

“There was a strong sense of community throughout the entire fellowship and for the first time in what feels like forever, I found a group of people who supported me like we didn’t just meet. I found a group of people that I know will support me forever and with all the ideas I want to bring to life.”

We’ll be recruiting for 6 positions in next year’s cohort in mid-late August. The application for the 2022-2023 cohort of fellows is now open and more information can be found here. Fellows Daniel Tounsel, JD, NP and Zena Ahmed, MTM, MPH will be staying on to assist in running the fellowship in the next academic year.
2021-2022 Health Justice Fellows with BFA Leadership Team Members at BFA Conference 2022
Join Beyond Flexner Alliance on Slack!
As we move forward with mobilizing and building community, the Beyond Flexner Alliance is launching a Slack group to continue discussing how we can all advance social mission together. We hope that this will serve as a virtual convening medium, a discussion forum, and a platform to exchange ideas to create a more equitable healthcare system. Click here to join our Beyond Flexner Alliance slack community!
Organizational Updates:

This summer, we have expanded our BFA team! Please join us in welcoming our new Administrative and Communications Assistant, Florence Tyler, and our two summer interns, Makeen Yasar and Eche Nwadiaro!
Students Florence Tyler (they/them), Makeen Yasar (he/him), and Eche Nwadiaro (he/him)
 
Health Workforce Diversity Tracker
The Health Workforce Diversity Tracker Initiative continues to push for equity and diversity through the creation of research reports, data collection partnerships, and presentations. After its launch in the fall of 2021, the initiative has continued its efforts on improving its Health Workforce Diversity Tracker, through the addition of new data. One recent update includes the release of the California Health Workforce report, prepared with the support from the California Endowment. Along with the release of this report, the team held 2 webinars to share the findings with key stakeholders in California. Meetings were also held with leaders at the University of California and the California Health Care Access and Information (HCAI) agency to discuss the findings and the need for action to make the health workforce more representative of the CA population.

The team is also working with the National Association of Community Health Centers (NACHC) and an advisory committee of health centers to design a data collection instrument to support the development of a Diversity Index that would show the diversity of the health center workforce compared to the population being served and similar health centers. A pilot test of the survey instrument is scheduled for the coming months.
 
Lastly, the team made two presentations to the Clinicians of Color Task Force established by the Louisiana Department of Health to develop a strategic plan to increase the diversity of the health workforce in the state to make it more reflective of the diversity of the population in the state.
 
Social Mission Metrics Initiative
Social Mission Metrics Initiative

 

Thirty dental, medical and nursing schools received summary reports for their field test participation of the Social Mission Metrics Self-Assessment. The research team presented on social mission at the Beyond Flexner Conference and the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Health Workforce Research Conference. Concurrently, our newest manuscript, “Analysis of Social Mission Commitment at Dental, Medical, and Nursing Schools in the US,” was published in JAMA Network Open.
 
Other Articles of Interest
 
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