2022 Visiting Professor Equality Diversity and Inclusion Series

Reena Karani

Dr. Karani received her B.S. in Biology from Brown University and her M.D. from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. She completed her residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at Montefiore Medical Center and her fellowship, chief fellowship and research fellowship in Geriatrics at Icahn School of Medicine. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. Dr. Karani also holds a Masters in Health Professions Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Full biography here.

Meeting with the Academic Primary Care Collaborative

Considering Meaningful Community Engagement (presentation opens as a PDF)

The Academic Primary Care Collaborative at Tallaght (APPC) builds on the co-location of the Trinity College School of Medicine’s Discipline of Public health and Primary Care, Tallaght Cross General Practice, and HSE primary care services in the Russell Centre; along with the adjacent Tallaght University Hospital, the expanding range of health and related services in this area, and engagement with community-based groups and projects in the Tallaght area. The APCC facilitates innovative service Delivery, Advocacy, Research and Education for health and wellbeing in Tallaght.

In this session, Professor Karani outlined perspectives on meaningful community engagement, drawing on her experiences of community engagement in New York. The group were presented with the ACE model of evaluating community engagement. This session was extermely valuable to the APCC, who are at an earlier stage of community engagement and are particularly aware of the need to be representative of the diverse community in which they operate.

Meetings with Students and External Stakeholders

During her visit, Professor Karani took time to meet with student representatives from the School of Medicine, the President and Wellfare Officer of the Students' Union, as well as external stakeholders including the Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Irish Network Against Racism.

During these sessions Professor Karani listened to the lived experience of our students, who outlined the many challenges they face as ethnic minority students in Ireland. The Immigrant Council of Ireland and the Irish Network Against Racism provided the national context.

Professor Karani used her time in Trinity to amplify the student voice, bringing their issues to the fore in the most senior fora across the Faculty of Health Sciences.

Building an Inclusive Curriculum in Health Sciences Courses

In this session, Professor Karani met with the Inclusive Curriculum Champions from across the schools of Dental Science, Medicine, Nursing & Midwifery, and Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Joint Session - Trinity College and RCSI addressing Equality Diversity & Inclusion

Professor Karani brought together Trinity College and RCSI schools of medicine for this engaging session on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in third level medicine education. The stated objectives of the session were:

• To gain an appreciation for EDI efforts that have been developed across different areas in the Schools of Medicine at Trinity College Dublin and RCSI
• To solicit creative ideas and input related to new EDI initiatives or domain areas where the organizations are feeling particularly challenged
• To facilitate a community of practice in EDI across the two school

The session presentation is available here (presentation opens as a PDF)

The two reports highlighted in this session are:

From RCSI: The RCSI Race Equality Action Plan 2021-2024 (link to media artilce, and download report)

From Trinity: Stand Up Speak Out! Racial Justice in Healthcare Education. (link to project, and report)

Considerations of  Racism and Bias – a HR perspective

This roundtable discussion with the Human Resources Department in Trinity offered the group an opportunity to explore the topic of racism and bias in areas of recruitment, staff welfare, and institutional barriers to consider.

Professor Karani challenged the HR Department to consider what are the values-based drivers for Trinity, and how does Trinity's demographic map onto the CSO census categories, is it representative and what are the strategies we might need in order to close that gap?

Some of Professor Karani's suggestions included developing and showcasing diversity in our leadership, having 'champions of diversity' in the hiring process, and as an institution we could be pro-active and agressive in the seeking of diversity if we really want to accelerate change.

Faculty Forum - Racism & Bias in Health Sciences Education

The Dean hosts a Faculty Forum at least once per academic year, in accordance with College governance. The Faculty Forum is open to all members of the Faculty to attend. It provides an opportunity to meet colleagues from other Schools within the Faculty, and to discuss a wide range of topics and issues.

During her visit to Trinity, Professor Karani along with Aaron Koay and Phil Mullen delviered a Faculty Forum on Racism and Bias in Health Sciences Education. The focus of the session was on the Stand Up Speak Out! Racial Justice in Healthcare Education report (available here).

As an output from this, the Dean of Health Sciences invited Aaron Koay to present the report findings to the Faculty Executive Committee, which comprises of the Dean of Health Sciences, Heads of Schools from the Faculty, School Managers, student representatives, professional staff representative, and the extended Faculty Office team. You can watch the video here: