Presence 5 for Racial Justice Workshop: Fostering Dialogue Across Medical Education to Disrupt Anti-Black Racism in Clinical Encounters

Date of Review: May, 2023

This resource from MedEdPORTAL describes a workshop that adapts the humanism-focused Presence 5 framework as a discussion-based workshop to foster meaningful case-based conversation and reflections among learners of diverse racial backgrounds with an aim to disrupt anti-black racism in the clinical setting. The guide is detailed and describes a series of sessions that review a case or approach to patient care through structured discussion focused on anti-racism. It can be implemented as a virtual or in-person 1-hour long session or series of sessions based on each of the Presence 5 elements, facilitated by a faculty member, the guide is detailed however I do think some faculty expertise would be important to ensure a nuanced approach to challenging comments or approaches suggested by participants. This resource provides brief didactic instruction on how to approach these difficult conversations with patients and can stimulate productive conversations among clinicians at different levels to build knowledge, skills, and confidence around anti-racism communication via personal experiences. I think this workshop’s detailed guide could definitely be adapted to be used across various small groups, it would be hard to find the curricular time to share it in its entirety but it does provide a way to have healthcare learners or providers across the spectrum to share in this dialogue. In addition, an expert in facilitating this kind of challenging discussion is important for the psychological safety of all learners and could be a limiting factor in implementing this curriculum. —Victor Quan, MD, NCEAS (edited by Ashti Doobay-Persaud)

Corresponding Author’s Email:

meghashankarmd@gmail.com

Institution:

Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Stanford University