https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/abolition(Links to an external site.)
What does abolitionism in health care mean to you? How can you engage as an abolitionist in your future career as a health care professional?
This assignment was inspired by a book I read over the summer of 2020, Bettina L. Love’s We Want To Do More Than Survive: Abolitionist Teaching and the Pursuit of Educational Freedom. I read it in a book club with other faculty, with the intent of supporting each other to learn anti-racist teaching. The opportunity to discuss the topic with other faculty was important, although they all taught very different subjects from me. As I read the book I kept thinking, what are some things I can actually do in my own classroom? What can I add or change about how I’m teaching that would help make my classroom not only equitable, but actively anti-racist? And what anti-racist practices would be most useful for the particular group of students who take my course? Ultimately, I decided that the best step I could take is to do more to prepare students to:
be anti-racist in their own future health care practice
help create change in the existing health care system in which they will work, addressing bias based on race, gender, and other factors
But how?