Overview

Our residents and faculty have the unique opportunity to serve and learn from various minoritized and underserved populations — from metropolitan Phoenix to rural Alaska. We also aim to cultivate diversity within our residency itself and are proud to matriculate residents from various cultural, socioeconomic and educational backgrounds who have a wide array of interests and opinions. Our goal is to foster an educational environment that recognizes social determinants of health and health care inequities and works to improve patient care in the face of these challenges.

What is Equity, Diversity and Inclusion?

This phrase refers broadly to policies, programs and environments that encourage representation and involvement of people from diverse backgrounds. In our definition, the term also refers to cultivating an environment of resident surgeons who are inclusive, informed and considerate while taking care of patients of various cultural and ethnic identities, socioeconomic statuses, sexualities and gender identities, as well as differently abled bodies.

Why is This Important?

Between Phoenix and Alaska, our residents are charged with caring for a diverse spectrum of patients. We also get to work with people from very different backgrounds every day. We know that groups that are built around “cognitive diversity” — which stems from the inclusion of diverse identities — are better at solving complex problems than homogenous groups. We believe that surgical training aligns with this principle, and that a focus on equity, diversity and inclusion will help us all become the surgeons we want to be.

Ways We are Promoting Equity, Diversity and Inclusion

  • Distribution of learning opportunities related to equity, diversity and inclusion, including unconscious bias training, toolkits for identifying and managing social determinants of health.
  • Equitable and diverse representation on our applicant review board.
  • Educational sessions for local youth (in progress).
  • IRB-approved research to investigate the diverse needs in our patient populations (in progress).