MCW Micro-Credential Pilot: Health Equity

Project Description Narrative:

This project will support the creation of the first micro-credential program at the Medical College of Wisconsin for the continuing education of the state's healthcare workforce. The basic idea of the micro-credential concept is a deep dive into a topic with intention for personal development. The researchers envision micro-credentials providing the healthcare workforce a novel opportunity for augmenting targeted skills and knowledge or rapid retraining in a shorter, flexible timeframe, with a recognized completion marker (digital badge). The micro-credential process and successful completion badge amplify the work done by the health care provider outside of their "typical" work in support of life-long learning.

The project team will create a micro-credential in health equity, recruit individuals to take it, assess the users' abilities to complete it, and then track changes in outcomes. The specific pilot is anticipated to enable the learner to discover contributors to recognized health inequities in the context of historical and current political, social, and economic forces, and to explore the biases of their environments. By learning what contributes to health inequities and identifying resources available within health systems and the communities in which their patients live, those with a micro-credential in health equity can apply their learnings to improve clinical outcomes further.