Members of Regions Hospital’s Surgical Services Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee join the show’s first-ever recording in front of a live audience inside the hospital auditorium in St. Paul, Minnesota. Laura Barnes, Drea Bauer, Meghan Gowan and Nick Hommez share how the group got its start, its initiatives and activities, and the importance of workplaces recognizing DEI within their own teams.

Listen to the episode or read the transcript.

Creating the Surgical Services DEI team

The team traces its origin to the pandemic. During height of pandemic, when all of us were feeling more isolated, says Hommez, the hospital started an initiative to expand their DEI efforts. They created the group and pulled members from difference specialties to discuss issues that were important to them.

Team members wanted to educate people about DEI efforts, what was going on in their lives and introduce each other to their culture. This manifested in presentations that informed care, including one on care techniques that improve transgender care, as well as presentations by team members about their journey to the United States.

The power of food

It didn’t take long to discover that food could be a helpful tool in learning new cultures and experiencing diversity. The panel says that gathering around food really brought them together and that it opend up opportunity for lots of good conversations.

Soon, the group was attracting not only increasing numbers of colleagues but their children as well. Going as a group to eat at an Ethiopian restaurant, for example, helped people feel comfortable enough to try something new and get out of their comfort zone. Bringing their kids, they found, helped introduce them to a new concept of what “normal” food is, and that it’s not necessarily steak and potatoes.

Wins for the team, wins for patients

The panel says that the committee’s efforts have led to better interactions with coworkers and patients in many ways. First, there is a significant correlation between DEI in the workplace and employee retention. Says Hommez, one of the best things about the committee is that it allows “differences to come out and be celebrated as we learn and ask questions…people are more interested in coming and having the conversation.”

Barnes says that the group’s efforts to find ways for patients to have access to interpreters (they ultimately found a solution in the form of video chat on an iPad) has helped her build trust with her patients quickly. “Anesthesia is unique in that most of the time I spend with patients, they’re unconscious,” she says. “So I get three to five minutes to connect and have to make it worth it.” She says that being able to communicate more effectively helps her put patients at ease and humanizes both sides.

Pulling in the same direction

Equity is about giving people what they need to be successful, says the panel. Everyone is trying to go in the same direction, but everyone is at a different point in their journey. The Surgical Services Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Committee has found that with some fun activities and food, people will come and support each other, wherever they are on the journey. To hear more, listen to this episode of Off the Charts.