Building a Culture of Respect and Inclusion through Team-based Organizational Change, Part 1 (Level 2)

Session Description: The incidence of disrespect and discriminatory interactions have escalated over the past decade across society at large bur are particularly disruptive in the healthcare environment. Professionals and allied team members dedicate their lives to caring and supporting wellness for patients, families and communities. These professionals and teams are dedicated to providing a positive and safe environment for the patients, families and visitors in their care. In order to promote optimum care, the workplace environment needs to be grounded in a culture of mutual respect for all team members regardless of their individual roles.

Barriers to addressing disrespectful and discriminatory include: a fear of escalating the behavior, lack of confidence regarding what to say or how to intervene. There is also a fear that their institution will not support any actions that would not meet the "customer is always right" mentality.
Additionally, the diversity of healthcare professionals and team members continues to expand, which can create discord as the approaches and perspectives adapt to a more inclusive environment. Issues of racial, gender, religious and other biases can disrupt team collaboration, research, clinical care and all aspects of healthcare as an industry.

One of the fundamental values in healthcare are that all patients are cared for, regardless of their beliefs or values. This fundamental tenet needs to be balanced with respect for all team members in all roles.

This session demonstrates an approach that moves the DEI conversations from computer-based learning, didactic presentations, educational planning, and policies that outline expectations for fostering diversity, equity and inclusion. Through an interactive format, this approach actively engages attendees by creating an opportunity to apply the core values of diversity, equity and inclusion. This approach is based on over forty years of communication theories and creates a framework and tools for addressing difficult situations, The application of this approach, and the role of debriefing as essential components of the approach, CE professionals can foster the transformation of difficult conversations to the teams in their organizations (health systems, professional societies, educational companies etc.).

CE professionals have a unique opportunity to encourage and promote organizational change that can have significant and positive impact on all healthcare related teams and environments.