Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives are part of the core values of UC Irvine School of Medicine. Within the Department of Surgery, the DEI Committee works to provide learning, teaching and employment opportunities for medical students, faculty, residents and staff members who are underrepresented in medicine. In addition, the committee advocates for equitable treatment and compensation, and inclusive opportunities for faculty members, residents and nonclinical staff. It works with other Department of Surgery committees and UC Irvine School of Medicine departments to advance the DEI agenda.
Our initiatives are:
- Recruitment and hiring
- Diverse and inclusive environment
- Leadership and advancement
- Research and innovation
- Community and global outreach
- Wellness and burnout
The Department of Surgery is committed to the well-being of its members and to providing a collaborative and supportive environment. We are proud to be an active participant in the Surgical Education Culture Optimization Through Targeted Interventions Based on National Comparative Data (SECOND) trial. In conjunction with the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME), the American College of Surgeons (ACS), the American Board of Surgery (ABS) and the Association of Program Directors in Surgery, the SECOND trial evaluates program culture and wellness in surgical training, conducts pragmatic randomized trials in the effort to improve culture and resident wellness and works to build and refine the Wellness Toolkit by assessing metrics of the learning environment and trainee well-being. While the trial is focused on general surgery residents, our department considers these standards universal to all our clinical faculty, fellows, advanced practice providers and other trainees.
Accordingly, the department’s Wellness Committee meets monthly to assess morale and metrics of well-being. The committee also plans department-wide events such as annual Halloween and holiday parties, department hiking and picnic events, and a resident appreciation weekend.
Global Surgery & Outreach
The Global Surgery Committee in the UC Irvine Department of Surgery seeks to actively engage in surgical care, education, quality improvement and research in resource-limited settings around the world. Composed of surgeons from varied specialties, the committee meets quarterly to discuss existing and future projects.
The committee’s objectives include the study of:
- The global burden of disease as a concept.
- Surgical disease and disability as a global public health concern.
- The need for trauma prevention strategies and the challenge of trauma care.
- Trauma care in complex humanitarian crises.
- Ethics, advocacy and equity in resources.
- Helping to further education curriculum and research.
Ethiopia
In July 2018, UC Irvine and 13 partner academic institutions met at the ACS headquarters in Chicago, Ill., to discuss shared goals and create a collaborative work plan for engagement, capacity-building, education, quality improvement and research. After participating in the pilot trip in April 2019, the Department of Surgery contributed to the ACS-COSECSA (College of Surgeons of East, Central and Southern Africa) Surgical Training Collaborative at Hawassa University in Ethiopia. Early achievements of this collaboration around the four pillars of clinical care, quality, research and education were promising, and our Global Surgery Committee has remained active in its development and sustainability.
Puerto Rico
Following the devastating aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, a surgical team, including Michael Lekawa, MD, and Matthew Dolich, MD, from UC Irvine, traveled to Puerto Rico with the ACS’s Operation Giving Back to offer assistance in surgical care. The team remained there for several weeks and has since been part of an ongoing effort to assist in stabilizing surgical and critical care in the region.
In collaboration with ACS Operation Giving Back, the Health Career Collaborative (HCC) is a national program that provides mentorship and exposure to health curricula and careers to high school students from socioeconomically disadvantaged backgrounds.
HCC Irvine was initiated in 2019 as a partnership between UC Irvine School of Medicine and Middle College High School in Santa Ana, Calif. It provides interested high school students with a preview of medical school through workshops and symposia run by faculty and medical students.
The Orange County Department of Education highlighted the partnership in their newsletter.
UC Irvine’s general surgery residency program provides ACGME- and ABS-approved elective global surgery experience in Cambodia. For one four-week rotation, senior residents and research residents may request this elective, which rotates at the Khmer Soviet Friendship Hospital (KSFH) in Phnom Penh. KSFH is Cambodia’s largest full-service public hospital with over 800 inpatients. Additionally, residents have the opportunity to operate at the Preah Kossamak Hospital. Airfares, lodging, local transportation and translation services are provided.
Faculty Mentorship Program
At the time of recruitment or hiring, all assistant professors or clinical instructors are notified about and enrolled in the Department of Surgery’s structured Faculty Mentorship Program (FMP) for which a committee of at least seven UC Irvine faculty members is convened, including the vice-chairs of education, research and academic affairs, as well as the division chief for the given faculty member. The remaining member(s) from the UC Irvine faculty are individually selected by the vice-chair of education to tailor the committee’s abilities to help the mentee with their career. Mentees may identify additional mentors who may be helpful in participating with the committee. The committee meets with each mentee biannually to check in regarding progress and ensure ongoing mentorship and sponsorship are occurring.
Faculty Mentorship Program Objectives/Goals:
- Foster an environment that encourages and enables career development of all faculty.
- Promote academic productivity.
- Provide opportunities for faculty to develop mentorship and leadership skills.
- Promote wellness and job satisfaction within the Department of Surgery.
Our patient safety and quality activities are designed to promote the Department of Surgery as a standard-bearer at UCI Health in providing care that is safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient and equitable.
Led by the department’s quality and safety officer, Victor Joe, MD, the Quality Improvement Committee is composed of faculty representatives of each division, residents and quality improvement staff. The committee aims to support each division’s specialty-specific performance improvement activities and to create synergy in our efforts. It meets monthly to collate and coordinate performance improvement efforts within the department to promote efficiency, improve communication efforts across the organization, optimize resources and monitor metrics provided by hospital administration and various hospital committees.
How we make a difference at UC Irvine:
- We have an integral role in the lead program that evaluates how quality is assessed and maintained across our institutions.
- We are a pilot department for the eM&M Optimization Project at UC Irvine, which aims to improve the quality of the M&M process to make meaningful patient and system enhancements.
- We serve as leaders in the American College of Surgeons’ National Surgical Quality Improvement Program and Trauma Quality Improvement Program, and the Society of Vascular Surgeons’ Vascular Quality Initiative.