TABLE 2: Breakout Group Questions For Establishing Best Practices for Reducing Gender Disparity in IM Training

A. Recruitment:

  1. Does your program emphasize inclusion/ diversity in your mission statement or on your website?
  2. 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?)
  3. Have you reviewed your website or promotional materials for visibility of female residents and/or faculty?
  4. 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?)
  5. 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:

  1. 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?
  2. 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?
  3. Does your faculty undergo implicit bias training before writing letters of recommendation
  4. Among all of your residents who presented at regional and national conferences last year, what percent were female?
  5. Among residents who published during the last academic year, what percent were male vs. female?

Awards/ Chief Resident selections:

  1. Has your program adjusted the language of evaluations to reduce Gender bias in performance assessments?
  2. During the past academic year, what was the percent female/male nominated by your program for Institution-wide resident awards?
  3. During the past academic year, what was the percent female/male nominated by your program for national resident awards/specialized training opportunities?
  4. What is your gender break down over the last 5 years for chief residents?

C. Family Friendly Policies:

  1. Does your program have a family leave policy? How is it communicated to trainees and applicants?
  2. 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)?
  3. How is coverage for family leave handled?
  4. Do you have a standard breastfeeding policy?
  5. Do you consider leave for elder care in the same way as leave for parental care? What about illness or mental health?
  6. What are novel options to support parents to stay at home for an appropriate length of time, i.e. at home electives?
  7. Do you have a mechanism for resident-parents to share parenting information and resources?
  8. 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)?
  9. What steps should we take to make leave policies transparent during recruitment?

D. Sexual Harassment:

  1. What constitutes sexual harassment in the context of the workplace for IM and subspecialty fellowship trainees?
  2. What are the elements that make up physical and non -physical sexual harassment?
  3. Do the participating institutions have a written policy on sexual harassment and a reporting mechanism?
  4. Other than written policies, what are other reporting options/tools to help IM trainees identify and report sexual harassment?
  5. 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?
  6. 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?
  7. Is there a way to emphasize steps taken to eliminate sexual harassment at work at IM residency recruitment?
  8. Are there separate policies specific to patient- initiated sexual harassment ?