ABSTRACT
To identify elements of crisis response that might hold lessons for resilience beyond the current moment, we studied a central North Carolina food system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on ethnographic interviews with farmers, employees and volunteers of food access organizations, and local government employees, our work found that connection, networking, innovation, and technology adoption were sources of strength and growth. Lessons: food system actors found that their social connections helped them to exchange information and resources, meet increased food needs among SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participants and Latina/os immigrants, and combine efforts to adopt technologies and learn from new labor pools. Challenges: while navigating COVID-19, food system actors faced challenges spanning labor, safety, information, government policies, supply shortages, weather, and unreliable information. In addition to lessons and challenges, we offer a series of future research directions that we identified in our study findings. Our study shows that small-scale production and local food organization and government responses are important and dynamic parts of a resilient food system. Regional systems' actors were able to pivot more quickly than large-scale systems and presented a more flexible, locally suitable model that will likely prove adaptive beyond the pandemic.
ABSTRACT
Study Objective: Physician representation in emergency medicine (EM) continues to lag despite efforts to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). According to a recent report, it could still take the specialty 54 years to achieve Hispanic representation equivalent to the US population. Similar data exists for Black trainees and other underrepresented in medicine (UiM). Mentorship is a key component in supporting UiM, yet physicians of color report having no formal academic mentorship. Furthermore, as different organizations start to develop mentorship programs, the minority tax on mentors becomes more obvious. The American College of Emergency Physicians Diversity, Inclusion, and Health Equity Section (ACEP DIHE) partnered with the Emergency Medicine Residents’ Association (EMRA) to develop the largest virtual diversity mentoring initiative (DMI) in EM to help bridge the gap in representation and inclusion. Methods: ACEP and EMRA obtained a grant from Vituity to sponsor a national mentorship program geared towards advancing racial and ethnic diversity in EM leadership. With only 300 spots for mentors and mentees using the Chronus Mentoring Software, we developed a 6-month virtual mentorship program to cycle through more participants and also provide opportunities to iterate our efforts. The ACEP/EMRA DMI is open to medical students, residents, fellows, and faculty. The virtual format allowed for no geographic restrictions on who could participate. We launched during the unprecedented COVID-19 pandemic with the EM residency recruitment cycle significantly impacted, especially students from programs with no home residency training, including all Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) programs. Results: Because the pandemic impacted residency recruitment efforts, most of our mentees were medical students. During the first cohort, we recruited 78 mentors and 104 mentees. Unfortunately, because of initial difficulty with the virtual platform and variable commitment due to the pandemic, we only had 29 connections. Notwithstanding, we saw 390 interactions throughout the 6-month period. The ACEP/EMRA DMI team hosted several social events to develop a sense of community including a Match/Mix/Mingle event. We also invited speakers to share their expertise on time management, effective mentorship, and overcoming imposter syndrome. Based on lessons observed in the first cohort, we increased our efforts on recruitment and branding and targeted our outreach to HBCU programs. This led to the recruitment of 98 mentors and 108 mentees for the 2nd cohort with 108 connections. Conclusion: Virtual mentorship offers an effective and efficient way of creating a sense of belonging for trainees and faculty who are underrepresented in medicine. The benefit of virtual mentorship that obscures geographic borders is that it expands the pool of mentors and mentees, allows for cross-collaboration across departments, and decreases the minority tax through dispersed support.
ABSTRACT
To identify elements of crisis response that might hold lessons for resilience beyond the current moment, we studied a central North Carolina food system during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on ethnographic interviews with farmers, employees and volunteers of food access organizations, and local government employees, our work found that connection, networking, innovation, and technology adoption were sources of strength and growth. Lessons: food system actors found that their social connections helped them to exchange information and resources, meet increased food needs among SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) participants and Latina/os immigrants, and combine efforts to adopt technologies and learn from new labor pools. Challenges: while navigating COVID-19, food system actors faced challenges spanning labor, safety, information, government policies, supply shortages, weather, and unreliable information. In addition to lessons and challenges, we offer a series of future research directions that we identified in our study findings. Our study shows that small-scale production and local food organization and government responses are important and dynamic parts of a resilient food system. Regional systems' actors were able to pivot more quickly than large-scale systems and presented a more flexible, locally suitable model that will likely prove adaptive beyond the pandemic.