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Background: Disparities in access to healthcare are a widespread problem globally and in the United States. Healthcare organization staff must be trained in how to identify potential inequities and given tools to help them foster organizational change to increase equitable access to healthcare for all. We developed the Healthcare Equity Scholars Program (HESP) to train and develop leaders to further integrate equity into organizational policies and practices. Methods: Two cohorts of HESP participants completed 12-month seminar-style cycles of the program between 2014 and 2017. All participants completed a project aimed at addressing healthcare disparities in their work area. In 2019, we conducted qualitative interviews to capture participants’ perceptions about how their participation in the HESP affected their work life, career, and the organization. Results: Qualitative analysis of interviews revealed that HESP had a strong impact on participants’ perceptions of their ability to tackle healthcare inequities and make change in their work areas. They cited awareness-raising, skill-building, and networking benefits of the program. Several participants described how their projects led to organizational change via additional quality improvement cycles, piloting of innovative programs, and process improvements, including development of task forces to address issues of equity. While participants described some obstacles to project implementation, they overwhelmingly responded that they were glad they participated in HESP and would recommend it to colleagues. Conclusions: Educational initiatives such as HESP show promise as a means of empowering healthcare organization employees to implement projects that result in meaningful improvements in healthcare equity and outcomes. Developing leaders in this way will be vital to creating more agile teams capable of transforming healthcare and fostering equity. |
