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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Pediatr.
Sec. Social Pediatrics
Volume 12 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fped.2024.1446852
This article is part of the Research Topic Interdisciplinary Approaches to Address Health Disparities for Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities from Underserved Communities View all 4 articles

Changes in LEND trainees' understanding and application of diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice principles

Provisionally accepted
Allison P Fisher Allison P Fisher *Lisa M Gies Lisa M Gies Steph Weber Steph Weber Tanya Froehlich Tanya Froehlich Simon Abimosleh Simon Abimosleh Neeraja Ravindran Neeraja Ravindran Jennifer Smith Jennifer Smith
  • Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Objectives: To assess changes in trainees' knowledge and application of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Justice (DEIJ) concepts after participating in a midwestern academic medical center Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and Related Disabilities (LEND) program. LEND is a federally funded year-long program training individuals of various disciplines (e.g., speech pathology, family advocacy, psychology) to better support the health of individuals with disabilities.Methods: Trainees (n=46) answered questions about their knowledge and application of DEIJ topics before and after program participation in 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Changes in trainees' responses were examined using paired-samples t-tests.Results: Thirty-six (78%) participants identified as White, 7 (15%) as Black, 2 (4%) as Asian, and 2 (4%) as more than one race. Three (7%) participants identified as Hispanic/Latino. Over the one-year program, trainees' perceived knowledge increased (t(45)=5.84, p < .001, Mdiff = .59, Cohen's D = 0.86). Regarding articulating definitions of DEIJ terms, trainees' summed scores following program participation also improved (t(45)=4.71, p < .001, Mdiff = 2.37, Cohen's D = 0.70). However, their comfort with addressing prejudicial statements and discussing and combating "-isms" (application of DEIJ skills) did not increase (t(45) = 1.74, p = .09, Mdiff = 0.17, Cohen's D = 0.26).Conclusions for Practice: LEND program participation positively impacted trainees' perceived DEIJ knowledge and ability to define DEIJ terms. However, future refinements to the curriculum will be needed to improve trainees' application of skills and to develop a more nuanced understanding of equity, intersectionality, inclusion, and belonging.

    Keywords: Curriculum, Leadership, Developmental Disabilities, inclusion, Equity, Intersectionality, diversity

    Received: 10 Jun 2024; Accepted: 25 Oct 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Fisher, Gies, Weber, Froehlich, Abimosleh, Ravindran and Smith. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Allison P Fisher, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, Cincinnati, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.