On March 24, from 6-7 p.m., the Multicultural Affairs Committee (MAC) within the Dr. Pallavi Patel College of Health Care Sciences will host an interdisciplinary panel focused on COVID-19 and the Asian-American experience that includes undergraduate and graduate students, faculty and staff members.
This event, co-sponsored by the Coalition of Occupational Therapy Advocates for Diversity (COTAD), is open to all students and members of the NSU community and will be accessible through Zoom.
The MAC’s mission is to promote multicultural awareness and inclusivity through engaging seminars and educational experiences to prepare future and current health care professionals to serve diverse populations as well as promote general education on diversity topics.
According to Sarah Williams, a graduate occupational therapy student and the graduate assistant for student development and multicultural affairs, previous MAC events focused on general MAC initiatives and addressed overall concerns in diverse populations in terms of health care. However, with the shooting of George Floyd and public demonstrations of this past summer and topics being discussed in popular media, such as the Black Lives Matter movement, popular conspiracy theories gaining traction like QAnon and general political distress brought on by COVID-19, they found a need for events that focused on topics geared towards culturally relevant discussions.
Recent events that the MAC hosted include a two part series in both the fall and winter semesters on Black men in Health care, a bias and privilege course and a body image in healthcare workshop. In light of recent events brought up because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there have been requests for an Asian-Americans in healthcare discussion.
“There have been a lot of requests for an Asian-American in healthcare panel and we are going to make it more centralized on the experience with COVID-19 and discuss how the pandemic, and the racially geared comments not only from previous administration, but from the public, [have] affected this community in the form of hate crime rates. There has been an increase in hate crime rates towards Asian-Americans by 149%,” said Williams.
This event will focus on several aspects of the Asian-American experience, including the ability for the community to share personal experiences for others to learn from, promote awareness of these issues, acknowledge the struggles this community is facing and reflect and incorporate this new knowledge.
“These events originally started off more general and didn’t address healthcare specifically but have since morphed into more healthcare based as this office is housed in the Health Professions Division. Now, events are more focused on how to better prepare students that will go on to healthcare in their careers and how we can better equip these students, faculty and staff with the tools to handle these issues,” said Williams.
Throughout the discussion, members of the panel will be asked a series of four to five questions related to their experiences during the pandemic and in their daily life. There will also be scenario-based questions to gauge appropriate reactions and provide audience members the opportunity to engage in the discussion.
“The upcoming MAC panel could not be timelier given the tragic event in Atlanta highlighting a year of increased discrimination and violence against AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) members of society. Unfounded terms such as “Kung Flu” and “China Virus” fueled fear and ignorance into acts of verbal and physical assault. This sharp rise in incidents is a reminder that implicit bias impacts all marginalized groups and that hate against the AAPI community is not history but rather an active part of our lives today. It is vital to our progress as an American society that we have these hard conversations in order to evolve and heal together,” said Megan Kim, an assistant professor and assistant director of clinical education (ADCE).
Students are encouraged to reach out to MAC through their website if students would like to discuss a certain topic or address a certain concern in their community and in healthcare. All past presesentations and discussions are recorded and hosted on their website for those who are unable to attend.
