Incorporating Community Member Perspectives to Inform a Resident Health Equity Curriculum

Abstract

Background There are few published resources to guide content of health disparities curricula. To train physicians to effectively address disparities, the needs and expectations of the local community need to be considered. Objective To obtain community insight about factors influencing health disparities and important components of a health disparities curriculum for residents. Methods This qualitative study consisted of 5 focus groups held in 2019; 4 included local community members, and the fifth was of leaders from local agencies serving these communities. Each focus group was professionally led and transcribed. Using an inductive approach to content analysis, the authors created codes from the transcripts. They then categorized the codes to support the development of themes. Results Sixty-five community members participated in the 4 focus groups, and 10 community leaders participated in the fifth. Overall, 6 themes emerged from the data: (1) A healthy community is a community with access; (2) system-inflicted stress weighs heavily on health; (3) communities have internal strengths; (4) racism affects care delivery; (5) respectful bedside manner is necessary to build trust and better health outcomes; and (6) experience the community to learn and appreciate strengths and needs. Conclusions This study illustrates that the community’s input provides insights on what to include in a health disparities curriculum and serves as a model for incorporation of the community perspective in curriculum development.