Leading and Sustaining Curricular Change: Workshop Proceedings from the 2018 Sex and Gender Health Education Summit

Abstract

The education of health science professionals must balance the incorporation of new and essential content against the current curriculum density. Scientific evidence documenting the impact of sex and gender on health outcomes establishes the need for incorporation of these topics into the health science curriculum. An interprofessional workshop was designed to provide participants with the knowledge and skills to effectively champion curricular change. Surveys before and after the workshop assessed the participants' perception of curriculum change. Introductory presentations addressed topics of organizational readiness and characteristics of change agents. This was followed by role-play activities in groups of 8 to 10, utilizing two scenarios. The first scenario involved a faculty champion advocating for change to the school curriculum leadership, and the second scenario involved the curriculum leadership advocating for change to the teaching faculty. After the role-play, participants shared the important points discovered by their groups, and the same information was collected by survey. After the workshop, 95% participants reported an increased ability to advocate for the inclusion of sex and gender topics in the curriculum. The most important aspect of the workshop was the providing of resources related to the teaching of sex and gender topics. We conclude that a workshop format balancing didactic information and role-playing scenarios is an effective tool for empowering faculty to introduce changes in health sciences curricula in areas that may be new to faculty or health science school leadership, such as the impact and role of sex and gender on health outcomes.