NEWS

Federal grant helps UNC-CH health affairs schools address minority clinician shortage

By KATHERINE SAVAGE
UNC-CH School of Medicine

CHAPEL HILL -- The Health Careers Opportunity Program of the U.S. Bureau of Health Professions has awarded the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill a five-year, $2.36 million grant that aims to increase the number of minority and disadvantaged students entering health professions. The program’s goal is to improve the access and quality of health care for disadvantaged North Carolinians.

Studies show that minority health professionals are more likely to practice in underserved areas and care for disadvantaged patients. The shortage of such practitioners contributes to the inability of vulnerable populations to access adequate health care.

Despite significant gains in the number of disadvantaged and minority students enrolling in the state’s health-professions schools over the past three decades, North Carolina still lags behind the national average in almost every major health personnel category. Although one-fourth the state’s population consists of minorities, only 4 percent of the state’s physicians are black, while 0.86 percent are Hispanic, and 0.2 percent are Native American.

UNC-CH’s Health Careers Opportunities Program will work to identify, recruit and support at every stage of the educational pipeline qualified minority and disadvantaged students interested in health careers, said Larry Keith, assistant dean, director of special programs, associate director of the Office of Educational Development and director of recruitment at the UNC-CH School of Medicine.

Keith directs the nationally recognized Medical Education Development Program for college and post-college students that is the new project’s centerpiece. He directs two other programs, the Health Professions Partnership Initiative and the Research Apprenticeship Program, both designed for pre-college students.

Established in 1996 with start-up funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the UNC-CH schools of dentistry, medicine and nursing, the Health Professions Partnership Initiative works with three local school systems to offer information, experiences and skills development for minority middle- and high-school students to better prepare them for health-professions education programs. Students with the potential to pursue health careers come to UNC-CH for summer programs.

Summer Experience I for rising ninth- and 10^th-graders exposes them to a broad range of available health careers and offers information about the academic achievement required to successfully pursue a health professions education and career. The next year, students are invited to participate in Summer Experience II, where they work as research assistants on select faculty research projects in nursing, dentistry and medicine. The third phase of the program focuses on college planning and intensive career development.

For rising high-school seniors, the medical school offers the Research Apprenticeship Program. Each summer, 20 promising disadvantaged students from across the state come to Chapel Hill for a seven-week residential program. Through hands-on experience in clinical and basic science laboratories, the students develop competence in scientific research, learn about biomedical science careers and interact with faculty mentors. Other academic enrichment activities, such as scientific writing seminars, enhance students’ potential to pursue science at the college level.

A third program is the Medical Education Development Program, which focuses on disadvantaged students who are either admitted and preparing to enter the medical or dental school, or rising college seniors or postgraduates who plan to apply to medical or dental school. They are introduced to the rigors of first-year medical and dental curricula through a nine-week, structured summer program that simulates the first semester of professional education. The curriculum is built around a core of basic science content.

The program allows students to become comfortable with the professional school environment and form academic and social support networks with peers and upperclassmen. They also gain training in academic skills.

"We hope to combat the national trend of declining numbers of disadvantaged applicants by funneling more qualified students into the pipeline through the programs offered by this office and by the other members of the UNC-CH Health Careers Opportunities Program partnership," Keith said.

The UNC-CH Health Careers Opportunities Program is a collaborative effort of the School of Medicine’s Office of Educational Development and the following partners: the UNC-CH School of Dentistry, the N.C. Health Careers Access Program, the Student National Medical Association chapter, East Carolina University, Fayetteville State University, N.C. Central University, N.C. A&T University, UNC-Pembroke, the school systems of Chapel Hill-Carrboro, Durham and Orange counties, and the state’s nine regional Area Health Education Centers.

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School of Medicine contact: Lynn Wooten, (919) 966-6046