Molly Capron, MD, MPH, WCAAP Equity Committee Member
As a general pediatrician at a federally qualified health center, I strive to center health equity and anti-racism in my clinical work. Joining the WCAAP Equitable Care Committee and participating in the recent WCAAP GATHER cohort have been excellent opportunities to complement this work.
Participating in the Equitable Care Committee has enabled me to connect with other pediatric providers throughout the state to work to advance issues of equity on a larger scale. We coordinate educational opportunities for other WCAAP members and connect providers with resources available to them to further the cause of equitable and respectful, appropriate care for all Washington children. Working with providers from a variety of specialties, practice settings, and geographic regions has helped broaden my perspective on the issues that face pediatric patients in our state.
The GATHER cohort provided thought-provoking resources from articles to videos and a discussion group to reflect on how these can best inform our clinical practice. In addition to the education and discussion component, each participant chooses an equity-oriented quality improvement project tailored to their own practice setting and needs. This helped me to apply the principles of diversity, equity, and inclusion in a more systematic and data-driven way. Hearing about others’ interventions and the challenges they faced in implementation, as well as the creative approaches they used to work around those challenges, helped motivate me to continue to assess our clinical care and educational efforts within this framework with the goal of providing high-quality, data-driven, culturally responsive and welcoming care to all of our patients.