Equity Across Religious Identity: Assessing Student Attitudes and Experiences with the Medical School Religious Holiday Policy.

Abstract

Background: Wayne State University School of Medicine (WSUSOM) is the largest single-campus medical school located in a diverse community. WSUSOM's religious holiday policy guarantees time off for observance of one religious holiday. For all other religious holidays, students must request for time off. The current policy lacks specific guidelines to ensure equity across religious identities when granting time off. Religious and spiritual practice can enhance wellness. Therefore, assessing the equity of the current policy is crucial to ensuring equitable access to wellness.

Objective: This project aims to assess students' attitudes and experiences with the current religious holiday policy at WSUSOM and compare experiences across religious identities.

Methods: A 17-question Qualtrics survey was emailed to all WSUSOM students. Survey questions included demographics, experiences with the current policy, and Likert scales to assess attitudes. Data was analyzed holistically and assessed for variation among religious identities using chi-squared analysis.

Results: Analysis included 156 surveys: 27.5% of students reported difficulties getting their religious holiday off, and 9.8% were denied a religious holiday, Muslims being the most impacted (p < 0.01). Muslim identifying students (75%) reported the highest incidence of completing additional work to receive an absence; 35.6% of students agreed that the current policy caused mental distress and majority of those being Muslim students (p < 0.01).

Conclusions: The current policy has caused difficulty for many students and has disproportionately impacted students from minority religions (especially Islam), exposing the need for a new policy.