Developing a diverse workforce

A universal understanding of the terms ‘equality, diversity and inclusion’ (EDI) are often taken for granted, especially within the field of health professions education. Often, when we think of inclusion, we think about those we bring into our community, not those we exclude. Our framing of diversity is often limited to increasing the visibility of one particular group of individuals, ignoring the multiple microsecting identities that individuals hold. This year, our Annual Scholarship Meeting (ASM) focussed on addressing these issues by celebrating diversity, by creating an inclusive community and by improving equity within our field and our association. This special issue provides an overview of our meeting, ‘Developing a Diverse Workforce’. We have collated the commentaries from our keynote speakers who delivered insightful presentations on intersecting issues pertaining to EDI.

The importance of the chosen focus on the theme of ‘developing a diverse workforce’ becomes evident when one considers a recent statistic from the World Health Organisation (WHO). Shockingly, according to WHO, no European member state has achieved full gender equity with regard to health outcomes. This is a healthcare issue, a workforce issue and a curricula issue. Our ASM, as led by our plenary speakers, considered EDI at the intersections between health, workforce and curricula. We focussed on equity and representation within the workforce based upon gender, disability, race, sexuality including LGBTQIA+, and social class. Our Gold Medal winner drew attention to the issues with representation in the global south and challenged us to consider what issues are facing healthcare educators, students and providers in different cultures that may not share the same views as the global north. Dr Holly Quinton has created infographics to summarise the salient points from each plenary.

As we go back to our daily lives, we need to take time to reflect on the messages from our ASM 2023. Developing a diverse workforce for the needs of a diverse society is not a single action. It needs planning, it requires cultural shifts, and above all else, commitment. EDI was not a one off theme at ASME; we have a commitment to improving, as evidenced in our strategy, in the themes of future meetings and the initiatives that we run. What we need now is a collective effort to improve, to nurture individuals and to include (Figure 1).