Bridging the gap: Development of an experiential learning-based health disparities curriculum

The increasing number of vulnerable populations served by the emergency department (ED) calls for developing and implementing curricula aimed at training residents to deliver quality care for the most marginalized groups.

We aimed to address this by developing and piloting a curriculum to introduce the unique challenges and disparities encountered by our diverse ED patient population using an experiential learning approach.

We engaged community partners in designing and implementing a curriculum for incoming interns. This curriculum addresses specific populations encountered within the ED including patients with psychiatric illness, patients with cognitive disabilities, intoxicated patients, violent patients, patients of various cultural backgrounds, non-English-speaking patients, and LGBTQ patients. Experiential and active learning sessions with content experts and site visits to area organizations were arranged. Pre-, post-, and time-delayed surveys were deployed to evaluate the pilot of this curriculum.

Thirteen incoming interns participated in the orientation curriculum. Residents' comfort with each of these various patient populations as well as familiarity with community and ED resources was assessed before, after, and 1 year delayed from each session (response 13/13, 100%). Their scores increased significantly from baseline in the postsurvey and were maintained 1 year later (p < 0.05). Residents additionally provided narrative responses regarding what they learned and what was most helpful after completing their intern year.

This pilot curriculum demonstrates that implementing an experiential learning curriculum and engaging community leaders and resources is key to training residents to address health disparities within their unique ED patient population. As such, it is imperative that we seek to immersively introduce trainees to the unique needs of the patient population they will serve early in training.