La Rabida is committed to creating a more equitable, inclusive, and welcoming environment for our patients, families, and staff. We are working every day to promote inclusion and compassion throughout our halls. We are doing this is by providing opportunities for education through La Rabida’s Equity Committee. This month, Sylvia Williams, MSN, RN, Director of Education & Inpatient Nursing, and Gene Liebler, LCSW, Executive Director of Behavioral Health, hosted a Grand Rounds session that focused on racial equity in a healthcare setting.

Grand Rounds are a series of educational lectures led by experts from across the hospital with the goal of improving patient care, treatment practices, and further medical education. This session on racial equity focused on the implication of stereotype threats in healthcare and how our teams, both clinical and non-clinical, can work to provide a safe and open environment for all of our patients and families.

“Stereotype threat is about how people experience their environment. When someone walks into an environment, what is that experience like for them and what are the things that are invisibly present the whole time that have a negative impact on that experience?” explained Gene.

La Rabida’s Equity Committee is dedicated to providing equitable care throughout the hospital to help improve the experiences of our patients, families, and staff.

“It was important for us as an institution to create that awareness. The role of the committee is to look at La Rabida as a whole to improve the experiences of our families and patients and to make sure that everyone is treated equally,” shared Sylvia.

The committee is made up of staff from across the hospital and is representative of both clinical and non-clinical departments.

“What the committee has done is allow us to look at where we have opportunities and challenges in terms of providing equitable care. Committee members can come to us and share ‘this is what we’ve seen' and ‘these are concerns that we have’ to help us identify the things that would benefit the institution and caring for our families,” explained Gene.

At La Rabida, we work every day to give our patients and families and happy and healthy future. In order to do that, equity must be at the center of everything that we do.

This story was featured in the March 2021 issue of eCurrents. Read the full issue here.