Assessing and benchmarking equity, diversity, and inclusion in healthcare professions

Abstract

Healthcare professions are among the fastest growing careers in the United States, but the issues of equity, diversity, and inclusion remain a challenge. The percentage of underrepresented minority groups is disproportionately small despite many efforts to increase workforce diversity over the past several decades. As the demographics in our nation are rapidly changing, increasing racial, ethnic, and cognitive diversity is crucial to achieving a workforce with the capacity to provide accessible and equitable healthcare. Given the growing evidence that a diverse workforce improves healthcare outcomes, fosters unique perspectives (cognitive diversity), and helps to reduce health disparities, there is an urgent need to address perennial barriers such as structural racism, biases, and stereotypes. Educational institutions should be held accountable to integrate equity, diversity, and inclusion in all aspects of healthcare professions education and practice. This article discusses potential areas for innovation and opportunities that can be leveraged in assessing and benchmarking equity, diversity, and inclusion in healthcare professions. The ability to thoroughly assess the PA profession's culture in relationship to diversity, equity, and inclusion provides an opportunity to determine how well the profession is performing, and to strategically plan for what else need to be done.