Social Justice and Health Equity

Purpose

This domain focuses on the clinician’s role in promoting a fair and just society and reducing health inequalities. See below for details of this curriculum and a wealth of collated and aligned resources.

Why is this important?

“If medicine is to fulfil her great task” wrote Rudolf Virchow - one of the founding fathers of modern pathology - “then she must enter the political and social life.’’

What Virchow had realised was that beneath the health problems caused by deprivation he observed in the 1840s lay a deeper set of social injustices. Injustices that continue to play out today as highlighted by the differential impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on disadvantaged communities. Clinicians, of all disciplines, are highly trusted members of society and if they are to be truly effective at improving the health and wellbeing of the society they serve, they need to learn to use their public voices for public education, health care reform, and social justice.

Domain learning outcomes

On completing this domain of the enhance programme, you will be able to:

• Promote social justice in the communities you serve, appreciating the differences between advocacy, allyship and activism
• Critically appraise the relationship between social determinants of health and health inequalities
• Consider how your decisions and actions, and those of others around you, affect people with protected characteristics (Equality Act 2010) taking action to address workplace discrimination, harassment and victimisation
• Value diversity in teams and organisations, adopting and advocating for inclusive practices
• Contribute to the design and delivery of care pathways (including digitally-enabled) that reduce inequalities, promote inclusion and engage and protect the most vulnerable

You can view the full chapter here.