Residency Diversity and Inclusion Policy

• We strive to build a program with diversity among its residents and faculty that reflects our rich city of San Jose and its surrounding communities. We value our partnerships with local undergraduate and graduate institutions, as well as high schools, that aim to increase access and exposure to medical education for those traditionally underrepresented in medicine.

• In our curriculum, we emphasize the role of social, economic, cultural, and legal factors in propagating health disparities across the country and in our local communities. We strive to engage underrepresented minorities through student collaborations and both faculty and resident-led initiatives that are borne out of Family and Community Medicine (FCM) projects.

• As family medicine physicians, we feel that it is our responsibility to use our positions of privilege to augment the voices of the vulnerable and marginalized in our society.

• With this aim in mind, we recognize the importance of having providers that reflect the diversity of the population we serve. While we acknowledge that our program does not currently reflect this diversity, we know that faculty of diverse backgrounds and experiences provide crucial expertise and perspectives that are essential to resident education and serving our community. We are actively working to diversify our faculty. Our current resident cohort consists of 21% who self-identify as underrepresented in medicine (defined by the AAMC in 2004 as “those racial and ethnic populations that are underrepresented in the medical profession relative to their numbers in the general population”).

WhoM do we serve?

Our residency continuity clinic is a Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) that is part of the larger Indian Health Center of Santa Clara County network. We have a long history of providing excellent care to San Jose’s diverse community, regardless of their social or economic circumstances. Please see the infographic below for more detailed information on our patient population:

Our primary inpatient hospital is a county-owned community hospital in San Jose. As part of the Santa Clara county system, O’Connor Hospital serves as a safety net for our local community. Please see the "Where We Work" page for further information. 

Health Equity Curriculum Committee

The Health Equity Committee is a faculty-led committee that oversees health equity and advocacy training of residents, including opportunities for residents to work with local and state community-based and advocacy organizations.

Curricular Highlights

• Two-week intern block covering a range of health equity, policy, and advocacy topics, followed by several intern group workshops

• Complemented by didactics, seminars, and workshops on a variety of additional equity and advocacy topics elsewhere in the curriculum

• Tour of community partnerships during orientation, and additional site visits during Family and Community Medicine (FCM) months

• Overview of Santa Clara County health system during orientation

• Annual FCM month rotation in which each resident develops a community or clinical research project in an area of choice (including topics in health equity and community health)

• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) training and certification, and implementation in continuity clinic

• Specialized clinical training

  • Strong training in addiction medicine including MAT (Medications for Addiction Treatment) Waiver Training

  • LGBTQ+ care including hormone therapy for transgender and nonbinary patients

  • Integrated Behavioral Health model rollout in continuity clinic

• Work with local community-based organizations including Andrew Hill High School, Indian Health Center intertribal elders circle, Next Door Solutions to Domestic Violence, and others

• Resident participation in county's public MediCal (Medicaid) plan Provider Advisory Council

• Opportunities to participate in local and statewide CAFP advocacy activities

BIAS INCIDENT REPORTING AND DEBRIEFING SYSTEM

The Stanford-O’Connor Family Medicine Residency Program works very intentionally to provide a warm, supportive, and welcoming environment for all.  As part of these efforts, our program has a Bias Incident Reporting Form.  If a bias incident occurs, residents or faculty can report the incident, which is automatically forwarded to our Behavioral Science faculty.  Those faculty will review and forward to any necessary persons to assure the incident is quickly and appropriately addressed.  The form also includes a Bias Incident Debriefing Guide outlining steps residents and faculty can take to debrief any incident that may occur.

Advocacy and Community Engagement (ACE) Committee

The Stanford-O’Connor FMRP’s Advocacy and Community Engagement (ACE) Committee is a resident-led committee dedicated to using our platform as physicians to advocate on behalf of policies that improve health equity and to fostering connections between our program and the historically marginalized and underserved groups within our local San Jose communities.

See the full mission statement and description of the committee here.

Highlights of Past and Present Resident Projects Centered on Inclusivity and Advocacy

• Diabetes self-management class for monolingual Spanish speaking patients- empowering monolingual patients through a culturally-sensitive curriculum to give patients autonomy and resources to identify barriers and solutions for management of their diabetes.

• Psychoeducational intervention for Latinx patients with depression- after recognizing the under-utilization of mental health services among the Spanish-speaking patient population, conducted a needs assessment and formed an intervention group educating patients and devising treatment plans.

• Aspiring health professionals mentorship program- collaborated with pre-health students of local universities to recruit underrepresented and socioeconomically disadvantaged groups to increase diversity among those pursuing health careers.
  

• Community partnership with Andrew Hill High School and Lincoln High School- partnered with a local high school (85% minority groups, predominantly Latinx) to have various resident-led health talks; aimed to provide earlier exposure to pre-health fields to help foster early interest and passion among traditionally URM groups.
  

• Partnership with Second Harvest of Silicon Valley- recognizing the overwhelming prevalence of food insecurity in the Bay area, established partnership with Second Harvest to help provide free healthy groceries and meals to our patients in need.
  

• Improving care for transgender patients at residency FQHC clinic- drawing from experienced faculty, local practitioners, and community resources, a manual for residents was created to educate and guide residents in the routine care for transgender patients in our clinic. This project also included updates to the EMR system so that it displays the correct name and pronouns for each patient.