JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Background:

The role of the tutor and their competencies in facilitating conversations about equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the Canadian medical education setting has not been studied and is not supported by evidence in the literature. The importance of the integration of EDI integration is supported through reports of student experiences, however the implementation of these concepts has not been evaluated and therefore the benefits are unknown. Tutors significantly impact their students' experiences and have been reported to be the cause of negative perceptions and career path changes, sometimes due to their discriminatory views.

Objective:

This review aimed to review the literature on tutor competencies as EDI concepts are integrated into medical education, as well as the available information regarding EDI implementation on the websites of each English-speaking Canadian medical school.

Methods:

PRISMA-ScR guidelines were used to conduct a literature search using the Ovid Database. Any publications that discussed problem based learning, the role of the tutor, or student experience with EDI in medical institutions met inclusion criteria. Exclusion criteria was location based - only papers discussing Canadian or Australian contexts were included to ensure relevance to Canada’s political climate and colonial history. Once identified to be included in the review, a descriptive analysis of each publication was performed. A review of the publicly available websites of Canadian medical institutions was also performed using a scoring matrix to evaluate each institution.

Results:

The literature search found zero publications exploring the role of the tutor and EDI at medical institutions, and only 9 discussing adjacent topics. The website search elicited more information, despite varying amounts of information between institutions.

Conclusions:

With these findings, this review was able to formulate recommendations for future studies and practices for medical institutions including the formal evaluation of tutors and EDI initiatives, and transparency in order to publicly display EDI-based efforts.