Welcome, everyone, to today's talk, Bystander, Upstander, or Allies, Strategies for Supporting DEI or Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in the Workplace. My name is Tony Gerlach, and I'm a critical care pharmacist from The Ohio State University. I have nothing to disclose, and when getting ready to develop this talk, I decided to ask my niece and nephews about bullies, bystanders, upstanders, and allies. And they are 13, 11, and 8. And from them, I got a different perspective, but it made me think of To Kill a Mockingbird, which when I was in school, which is one of my favorite books to read, and I think we can learn a lot, especially about bystanders, upstanders, and allies from this book. In discussing the two of the main characters, Jean Louise, or Scout, and Atticus Finch, I think we got great examples of bystanders, upstanders, and allies. Early in the book, Scout was more of a bystander. She was passive and often unaware of her ability to help others. But as she grows up in the book and progresses, she becomes an upstander, or really someone known as an active bystander, particularly when she intervened on Boo Radley's behalf at the end of the novel. And then ultimately, we have Atticus Finch, who is our ultimate ally. Although he does not share the same oppressions as Tom Robinson, he is someone who joins with him and his group and really gives them support in this way of being his lawyer to share a common ground or purpose. And his voice became very powerful, hence why he was elected by the American Film Institute as one of the greatest heroes of all time. Now I'm going to focus on microaggressions. And microaggressions, just to define them, are really subtle verbal and nonverbal insults or denigrating messages directed towards an individual due to their marginalized identity. Because these are really meant to be committed by well-intentioned people and may even be thought of by those well-intentioned people as a compliment. But they're often unaware of their hidden messages conveyed and the impact of those statements on the marginalized population. They're often based on stereotypes, and more importantly, our own implicit bias, which we all have. And these are our subconscious attitudes, perceptions, and stereotypes that influence really our understanding actions and behaviors when interacting with people that may or may not be different than us, with a different identity. There are a variety of examples of microaggressions. There's ascription of intelligence. You are a credit for your race. Or how did you get in that school? Really meaning to those marginalized people, specifically of different ethnicity. People of color are generally not as intelligent as white people. Or you do not belong here. Other examples of microaggression include colorblindness. These include, I don't see color. There's only one race, the human race. I treat everyone the same, which oftentimes, the speaker might not realize that they're giving microaggression. But there is this hidden meaning to it, especially to these different ethnicities that your identity isn't relevant or your experience is not real. Other examples of microaggression might be age-related. And this is something I do see at my job at work. And those microaggressions might be, you might have trouble learning the new technology, which the hidden message is, you are too old to learn. Or are you an intern? Meaning you're not to be taken seriously because you look young. Others might, issues of microaggression might be gender-related. And this is one that I actually recently subconsciously participated in, which is addressing a new female attending intensivist by her first name on rounds. And evidently, I did this multiple times without realizing it. It was very subconscious. Luckily, she pulled me aside and let me know this. And I think the subtle message is, she didn't come in respect like her male colleagues, which is not the case. I think she's a fantastic physician. And it wasn't anything that I really meant. It was just subconscious. And really thinking and getting out of that implicit bias headspace. And we all see, assuming a female physician in scrubs as a nurse, which the subtle message is, you're not smart enough. And as I said, these targets of microaggression are often based on our stereotypes and implicit bias. And they're often targeted at racial minorities, women, transgender folks, both young and elderly, anyone who might be non-professional or non-traditional in their profession, and the LBGTQ plus community. And I think, ultimately, when I talk about this, if we all think alike, then someone isn't thinking. And ultimately, we need to get past these so we can give the best patient care to all of our patients that come into the hospital and the ICU. Next, I'm going to pass this along to Dr. Anne Thompson. Thank you very much.

DEI

upstanders

microaggressions

implicit biases

patient care