Defining and Developing Black Health National Learning Competencies in Medical and Public Health Education: A Mixed Methods Study

In Canada, anti-Black racism is a daily reality that co-occurs and affects all other health conditions that Black people experience. Black communities face disproportionate health outcomes, unfavourable social circumstances, and underrepresentation in medical and public health professions. To improve population health, it is important to look at policies and practices in anti-Black racist training and support of medical doctors, health care and public health professionals. Doctors and public health professionals play an important role in the Canadian health care delivery and public health systems whether through direct patient care or population health interventions. Through education and training, medical doctors and public health professionals learn how to approach, engage, support, treat, and improve the health of patients and communities. During this training, medical and public health trainees gain skills that help them respond to patient and population needs. However, they are not taught about the unique history and impacts of anti-Black racism on Black people in Canada. The lack of this training contributes to the poor health care experiences and outcomes of Black Canadians. This proposed policy research will suggest a set of Black Health learning objectives for medical and public health education across Canada. We questions on how can education on anti-Black racism be integrated into medical and public health training and what can help increase uptake of anti-Black teaching in both fields? This will be done in 3 phases. First, documents including curricula, syllabi, and examination objectives will be reviewed. From this, a set of Black health learning objectives will be proposed. Second, we will interview policymakers, decision makers, educators, students, doctors, public health professionals, and patients to gain a wide range of perspectives to inform the policy options. Lastly, final policy recommendations will be made based on participant feedback.