AIDPH hosted its annual colloquium “Confronting Inequity Through Oral Health Policy” on January 14 and 15, 2020. This year’s colloquium featured expert speakers from diverse backgrounds to lead the discussion around inequities in public policy and how clinicians, policy makers and leaders can affect change.
Dr. Candice Chen of Beyond Flexner Alliance presented Social Mission: The Role of Health Workforce in Addressing Health Equity. Her presentation centered on how professional education training programs can and should be held accountable for recruiting and training professionals, whose mission it is to advance health equity.
Presentation Abstract
Health workforce – the makeup, distribution, selection, education, and training of health care professionals – is an underlying health equity issue. Insufficiencies in different disciplines and specialties, geographic locations, and service to underserved populations negatively affect access and contribute to ongoing health disparities. The behavior of our health professions education programs – the way we recruit, train, and role model for future health professionals – influences career choices and imprints behaviors that can either undermine or advance health equity. Social mission is the contribution of a health professions school in its mission, programs, and the performance of its graduates, faculty, and leadership in advancing health equity and addressing the health disparities of the society in which it exists. This session will focus on the role of health workforce in addressing health equity, health workforce policies that both contribute to health workforce inequities and that aim to address health workforce challenges, and on the role of health professions schools in addressing health workforce equity.
Join the conversation. What do you think states, professional training programs, and clinicians can do to improve the way we address health equity in dental public health?
If you’d like to know more about the 2020 AIDPH Colloquium, you can check out the Book of Proceedings. You can also watch the full presentation here.
Post authored by:
Caitie Skaggs | AIDPH Staff
The American Institute of Dental Public Health
programs@aidph.org