TABLE 2: Breakout Group Questions For Establishing Best Practices for Reducing Gender Disparity in IM Training
A. Recruitment:
- Does your program emphasize inclusion/ diversity in your mission statement or on your website?
- Describe the recruitment committee at your program. (How is that decided? Is there female representation on this committee? Who reviews applications and selects for interviews?)
- Have you reviewed your website or promotional materials for visibility of female residents and/or faculty?
- Describe how gender disparities may be present on recruitment days at your institution (visibility of female presenters, visibility of core faculty, gender of interviewer, female residents accessible to talk with?)
- How has your program/institution addressed implicit bias for faculty? (Was this helpful? Has this increased your awareness of biases? Has this impacted your recruitment process?)
B. Career Advancement:
Mentorship & Scholarship:
- How is your program doing with your female PGY2s and PGY3s having a career mentor in their field of interest? What is proportion that is a gender matched mentor?
- How is your program doing with your female PGY2s and PGY3s having a research mentor in their field of interest? What is proportion that is a gender matched mentor?
- Does your faculty undergo implicit bias training before writing letters of recommendation
- Among all of your residents who presented at regional and national conferences last year, what percent were female?
- Among residents who published during the last academic year, what percent were male vs. female?
Awards/ Chief Resident selections:
- Has your program adjusted the language of evaluations to reduce Gender bias in performance assessments?
- During the past academic year, what was the percent female/male nominated by your program for Institution-wide resident awards?
- During the past academic year, what was the percent female/male nominated by your program for national resident awards/specialized training opportunities?
- What is your gender break down over the last 5 years for chief residents?
C. Family Friendly Policies:
- Does your program have a family leave policy? How is it communicated to trainees and applicants?
- What would an ideal family leave policy look like in your residency? Does that include issues outside of parental leave (such as flexible vacation care)?
- How is coverage for family leave handled?
- Do you have a standard breastfeeding policy?
- Do you consider leave for elder care in the same way as leave for parental care? What about illness or mental health?
- What are novel options to support parents to stay at home for an appropriate length of time, i.e. at home electives?
- Do you have a mechanism for resident-parents to share parenting information and resources?
- What are your thoughts on competency-based medical education (CBME) in place of time-dependent model based off of achievement of milestones (used in Canada)?
- What steps should we take to make leave policies transparent during recruitment?
D. Sexual Harassment:
- What constitutes sexual harassment in the context of the workplace for IM and subspecialty fellowship trainees?
- What are the elements that make up physical and non -physical sexual harassment?
- Do the participating institutions have a written policy on sexual harassment and a reporting mechanism?
- Other than written policies, what are other reporting options/tools to help IM trainees identify and report sexual harassment?
- Are IM trainees given formal education on how to identify and report sexual harassment at work both as potential victims and bystanders? What % are aware of how to use the reporting process?
- What steps are taken at the institutional/departmental level to educate faculty, APDs and program directors about how to handle a report or complaint regarding sexual harassment of an IM trainee?
- Is there a way to emphasize steps taken to eliminate sexual harassment at work at IM residency recruitment?
- Are there separate policies specific to patient- initiated sexual harassment ?