Our push for gender-based equity

Greetings colleagues,

Welcome to the spring 2020 edition of Academic Matters, the e-newsletter of the University of Florida College of Medicine – Jacksonville.

In striving to be the region’s premier academic health center, it is essential we promote an equitable environment for all faculty, staff, residents and students. That includes fair treatment for everyone regardless of demographic identifiers such as race, ethnicity and gender.

In February, we held “Achieving Safety, Equity & Dignity: Time’s Up in Healthcare,” a special event focused on the scope and impact of harassment and gender-based disparities in the health care workplace. Sharonne N. Hayes, M.D., director of diversity and inclusion at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, was the featured speaker.

Hayes, who is also a professor of cardiovascular medicine at Mayo Clinic, shared national statistics and widespread myths about gender-based discrimination and harassment in health care. For instance, a study published last year in The New England Journal of Medicine indicated that 65% of female surgical trainees have reported experiencing gender discrimination. In addition, 20% of them have reported sexual harassment and 13% have reported discrimination surrounding their pregnancy or child care.

“Inequity is an issue,” Hayes said, referring to significant pay gaps among men and women who perform the same jobs. The statistics are indeed disturbing and reflect the need to foster honest, healthy dialogue around ways to handle — and ultimately eliminate — unfavorable gender-based treatment.

Our enterprise pledges to uphold the following tenets:

• Every employee should have equitable opportunity, support and compensation.
• Sexual harassment and gender inequity have no place in the health care workplace.
• We are committed to preventing sexual harassment and gender inequality while protecting and aiding those who are targets.
• We must understand, measure and track the scope and impact of sexual harassment and gender-based inequities.

The “Time’s Up in Healthcare” event comes not long after we began working with an outside firm to study compensation among faculty, with particular emphasis on gender. The information gleaned is helpful, and leadership is committed to regularly conducting such studies to help move our enterprise in the right direction.

We have yet to fulfill all of the components of the Time’s Up initiative, but it is our goal as an enterprise to push forward, with concrete steps, to meet all the expectations. Prospective employees, trainees and students expect equity, current personnel deserve it and our patients will undoubtedly benefit from receiving care at facilities that honor those tenets.

NEW DEPARTMENT CHAIRS

Since the last edition of Academic Matters, Ramon Bautista, M.D., M.B.A., became chair of neurology, taking over for Alan Berger, M.D., who chaired the department for 25 years.

Bautista, a professor of neurology who joined UF Health in 2000, has played an essential role in the growth of the department. He established the first National Association of Epilepsy Centers-certified Level 4 epilepsy program in Jacksonville, developing a multispecialty, collaborative program that enables UF Health to offer state-of-the-art epilepsy care.

Shortly after that announcement, Leigh Neumayer, M.D., M.S., was named chair of surgery. She comes from the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson, where she served in many leadership capacities, including as chair of surgery, interim senior vice president for health sciences and interim executive dean. Neumayer is internationally known for her expertise in breast cancer surgery and research, advocacy for women’s health issues and leadership in surgical education.

We are excited to have them in these key leadership positions as we pursue our vision to be the region’s most valued health care asset.